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Unicoi County spoiled Senior Night for Morristown West Thursday night as the Blue Devils scored the game’s first seven points and led all the way for a 66-56 victory at Michael R. Reed Gymnasium.

Grant Hensley pumped in 23 points to lead the Blue Devils to their 22nd win against seven losses. Jackson Simmons added 15 and Eli Johnson 14 for the visitors who won it with some deadly free throw shooting.

Unicoi cashed in 18 of 22 at the charity stripe compared to 7 of 10 for the Trojans who closed the regular season with a 12-13 worksheet.

Bereket Evans hit four three-pointers in the second quarter and finished with 18 to lead the Trojans. Jalen McCullough was the only other player in double figures with 11. Tory House chipped in eight and Bricyn Gudger six.

The visitors led 17-6 after one period and upped the count to 39-22 at halftime before the Trojans battled back in the second half.

Unicoi shot 51.2 percent from the floor by making good on 22 of 43 including 4 of 10 from behind the arc. The Trojans finished at a cold 37.8 percent, hitting only 22 of 58. West was 5 of 18 on three-point tries.

The winners had a 34-31 rebounding edge as Lucas Slagle raked down 10 stray shots with Simmons grabbing eight. House had 10 rebounds for West.

Trojans coach Joe Dobyns said, “In the first half, we just did not play well. We were very uncharacteristic of ourselves. I thought we lost our composure and we didn’t defend very well and we had some bad body language in the first half. That’s just not who we are or who we want to be as a team.

“But I was very proud of our effort,” he said. “It would have been easy to just lay down and quit but we didn’t do that. We fought back and played better.”

Dobyns said, “Unicoi County is a really good basketball team. They’ve beaten a lot of teams in East Tennessee this season. We would have liked to send our seniors out with a victory but it just wasn’t to be.

“Now the regular season is over and it’s time to get ready for the district,” he added. “We learned a lot throughout the regular season and we played a good schedule. I think that has prepared us for the post season. Everybody’s starting over now.”

Johnson hit the first bucket for the Blue Devils before Hensley knocked down a triple. Kolby Jones added a basket and the visitors were on their way.

Alban Oruglica hit two free throws with 3:41 left in the first to get West on the scoreboard but Slagle scored inside for a 9-2 lead.

House made the Trojans’ first basket with 1:21 left in the first and scored again with 43 seconds left in the quarter to cut the deficit to 11-6.

But Slagle and Hensley made two free throws each with 20.9 left in the quarter after a foul and then a technical on the Trojans. Hensley then scored after the inbounds pass and it was an 11-point game at the first break.

Gudger made a bucket for West to open the second stanza but Simmons and Johnson scored for the winners. House hit a basket for West and Evans knocked down his first triple to chop the lead to 22-13.

Simmons hit two baskets for Unicoi but Evans made back-to-back three’s and the lead was down to 26-19 with 3:51 left in the half.

However, the Blue Devils scored 10 points in the final 3:22 of the period while the Trojans got just one more three from Evans and trailed by 15 at intermission.

Rylin King hit a bucket for West to start the third quarter before Johnson scored for the Blue Devils. The Trojans then ran off nine straight points to get within eight at 41-33.

But Hensley got the visitors back in control as he hit two of three free throws, gunned in a three and then scored another basket for a 48-33 advantage. Ty Steisslinger and McCullough had baskets before the quarter ended with Unicoi up by 50-37.

Johnson and Simmons had the first baskets of the final frame before West scored six straight to close within 54-43 and the teams pretty much exchanged points throughout the final four minutes with the Blue Devils holding their margin by making 6 of 8 free throws.