For the first time in the 32-year history of the Ladies Classic, which has always been played on Greeneville High’s home floor, the GHS Lady Devils are in the finals.
The Devils used a terrific defensive effort to slip past Upperman 44-42 to advance to the championship game at 5 p.m. on New Year’s Eve.
Down 13-7 after one quarter and 21-16 at the half, Greeneville finally caught up at 21-21 early in the third quarter and got the lead at 26-24 with 4:10 left on Lindy Carter’s 3-pointer from out front. It was a dogfight from there on.
The third period ended deadlocked at 32, but the Devils immediately grabbed the momentum when Carter nailed another 3-ball from the wing with 7:11 left to go up 35-32. A rebound putback a little over a minute later by Chloe Marsh put GHS up 37-32, and Upperman could never catch up.
The Bees did make a push. Down 42-34 with about three minutes left, they got back to back 3-pointers from Bella Mullins and Jayla Cobb to get within 42-40 at the :55 second mark.
Upperman had four fouls to give, and by the time they finally got the Devils to attempt a one-plus free throw, only 27 seconds remained. Delana DeBusk sank both tosses for a 44-40 lead. Brooklyn Crouch drove for a layup to cut the gap to 44-42. GHS worked the clock down to :07 and missed a one-plus free throw attempt, but Upperman’s last gasp shot came up short.
The Devils got an all around effort on offense, led by DeBusk with 14 points. Lauren Bailey and Lindy Carter each scored 11 Chloe Marsh had eight points and 10 rebounds
Upperman was led by Brooklyn Crouch with 16 points and six assists and Jayla Cobb with 10.
GREENEVILLE (44): Ellenburg 0-1 0-0 0, Lauren Bailey 4-13 2-3 11, Lindy Carter 4-8 0-0 11, Marsh 3-5 2-2 8, Delana DeBusk 5-9 2-3 14, Dilchert 0-1 0-0 0, Shaw 0-3 0-0 0. TOTALS: 16-40 6-8 44.
UPPERMAN (42): Brooklyn Crouch 8-12 0-0 16, Mullins 2-4 0-0 6, Hamilton 0-4 2-2 2, Conradi 2-2 0-0 4, Jayla Cobb 4-9 0-0 10, Johnson 1-2 2-2 4. TOTALS: 17-33 4-4 42.
3-Point Goals: GHS—6 (Carter 3, DeBusk 2, Bailey). UHS—4 (Mullins 2, Cobb 2).
GREENEVILLE 7 9 16 12—44
UPPERMAN 13 8 11 10—42
