Reid Satterfield (5) of the Greeneville Green Devils. (Photo by Danny Parker)
By MIKE BLACKERBY
GREENEVILLE – Greeneville can score in bunches – and nobody does it better Reid Satterfield.
The 6-foot-3 sophomore guard poured in 42 points Monday as the Greene Devils put on an offensive show to remember in a 97-84 Class AA sectional elimination win over Fulton.
The victory vaults Greeneville (26-6) into the state tournament for the first time since 2014.
“I’ve not seen 42 before,” said Greeneville coach Brad Woolsey.
“I’ve never had anybody score that many points. He never came out of the game, he played defense the entire game and he just kept on scoring. That was pretty dang impressive.”
Indeed it was.
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Fulton coach Jody Wright, whose Falcons finish 21-8, was certainly impressed.
Satterfield was 13 of 20 overall from the field. He was 8 of 13 from 3-point range and 8 of 8 from the line.
He got a few good looks early and the genie was out of the bottle,” said Wright.
“He starts 5 of 6 from 3 and he’s shooting in a wash tub at that point.”
Satterfield’s start did nothing to suggest a special game was in the offing.
He was 1 for 3 in the first quarter with three points.
He had 11 points in the second quarter, 16 points in the third quarter and 12 points in the fourth quarter.
Satterfield was hardly the only Greene Devil on fire.
Greenville shot 63 percent (31 of 49) overall from the field and 65 percent (15 of 23) from beyond the arc.
Sophomore guard Kobi Gillespie made 8 of 9 shots and totaled 24 points.
“Gillespie impressed me with his ability to score and his ball-handling,” said Wright.
Micah Banks came off the bench and scored 14 points. He hit four triples and was 5 of 8.
“Offense is our strength, for sure,” said Woolsey.
Wright said he knew coming into that Fulton would have to defend to have a chance.
“The bottom line was we knew that we had to come out and play defense,” said Wright.
“They’re a really skilled offensive team and Brad has done a fantastic job. We knew it would be a really hard matchup.”
Fulton simply never found a way to slow down the offensive onslaught.
Meanwhile, the Falcons had plenty of offensive fireworks as well.
Senior point guard Edward Lacey finished a fantastic career with the Falcons with a 26-point performance.
Senior wing Domenic Holland had 17 points, sophomore guard Damin Holt scored 14 and senior post Adam Robinson netted 12 for the Falcons.
Fulton also shot well (31 of 57), and the Falcons made a final push to get back in the game at the start of the fourth quarter.
Greeneville led 70-60 after three quarters, but Fulton cut the gap to 73-71 with 4:57 to play.
The Greene Devils answered with a bucket by Banks and another 3-point shot by Satterfield to push the margin back to seven points.
The Falcons got not closer than five points the rest of the way and Greeneville stretched out its lead by shooting free throws in the closing moments.
“It was kind of a battle of attrition,” said Woolsey. “Both teams were tired.”
Woolsey said he knew Fulton wasn’t going to give his team anything.
“Everybody fought hard,” he said.
“You’ve just got to fight and battle and not quit. In the end we just made a few more plays than they did.”
Wright said he couldn’t have asked any more of his team this season.
Although Fulton didn’t make it back to the state championship game for a third consecutive season, Wright said these Falcons played up to their potential.
“Greeneville didn’t out-work us or out-hustle us,” he said, “they beat us.”