Junior point guard Anna Shaw (22) and the Greeneville Greene Devils faced the Livingston Wildcats in a TSSAA Class 3A state tournament quarterfinal in Monte Hale Arena at the Murphy Center on Tuesday, March 7, 2023, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The Livingston girls won 63-60. (Photo by Danny Parker)
BY JESSE SMITHEY
MURFREESBORO — Greeneville girls’ basketball coach Annette Watts wasn’t afraid this season to test her group against the state’s elite.
Bearden. Bradley Central. Gatlinburg-Pittman. CAK. Alcoa. Catholic.
Didn’t matter. Greeneville played them.
And while beefing up the schedule to forge a iron-tough squad didn’t pan out Tuesday in regards to getting the program its first state tournament win since 2006, one could argue the Lady Greene Devils are inching closer to reaching more statewide respect.
Greeneville, in the Class 3A state tournament for a second year in a row, darted to a 16-point lead in the first half only to fall to Livingston Academy, 63-60, in the Murphy Center at Middle Tennessee State. Last year, Greeneville played eventual state runner-up Jackson South Side tough in the first round.
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The early perimeter shooting of Tambryn Ellenburg helped set the tone Tuesday for Greeneville (27-9), but once Livingston Academy (28-7) got its first lead, it didn’t relent. And it made a barrage of fourth-quarter foul shots that almost completely thwarted Greeneville’s late rally.
Almost.
Down 62-60, Greeneville had an open 3-point attempt in the final seconds that would have won it. But it just missed the mark. Officials called a foul on Greeneville on the rebound attempt with 0.5 left.
Livingston Academy made 1 of 2 at the other end. They were 18 of 22 at the free-throw line in the fourth.
“We’ve played the Bradleys. We’ve played the Uppermans. We’ve played anybody tough that we could play to get ready for this,” said Watts.
“And we’re not tall. We’re not real fast. We just do what we do really, really well. I’m just proud of them.”
Ellenburg helped Greeneville take an 18-5 lead in the first quarter and establish some early momentum by hitting three 3s in the first quarter. That start also helped offset early foul woes to Lauren Bailey. The senior Miss Basketball finalist and Gardner-Webb signee picked up her second foul late in the first quarter.
She got whistled for her third in the first minute of the second half.
“It killed our confidence a little bit, but that’s just something you have to be able to play through. That’s on me. I don’t think I handled it as well as I could have,” said Bailey, who finished with 10 points and two rebounds in just 18 minutes.
“But I tried to bring that energy from the bench.”
Livingston Academy rallied in the second quarter with transition points, but Greeneville still led at the half, 32-22.
LA took its first lead with a little more than a minute to go in the third. Halle Ledbetter missed a 3 from the wing but got an offensive rebound in the lane and made the putback for a 38-36 advantage.
Still — despite scoring four points in the third quarter and trailing 40-36 heading into the fourth — Greeneville was tied (43-all) at the 6-minute mark in the fourth thanks to a three-point play by Chloe Marsh.
Marsh scored in the paint with 4:52 to play to cut LA’s lead to 47-45.
Lindy Carter, who led Greeneville with 12 points, buried a 3 from the wing with 1:27 remaining that cut Greeneville’s deficit to 55-52.
Bailey hit a 3 with 24 seconds left that cut the deficit to 60-58.
And she hit two foul shots to make it LA 61-60 with 11.8 to go.
But LA’s free-throw shooting, at one point in the fourth, was a perfect 14 of 14 and was keeping Greeneville at arm’s length.
After going 2-for-8 at the free-throw line in the first half, Livingston Academy was 20 of 24 after the break.
The Lady Wildcats missed one late that allowed Greeneville a last-second look, but their overall proficiency proved the difference.
“I think at Tennessee Tech, in our games we played there (in the postseason), in three or four games, we missed three or four (foul) shots,” said LA coach Lesley Riddle. “We shoot upper 80s (in percentage) on the norm. And in the tournaments, we’ve been in the 90s.”