The Greeneville Greene Devils faced the Stone Memorial Panthers in a TSSAA Class 3A state tournament semifinal at Murphy Center on Friday, March 18, 2022, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The Greeneville boys won. (Photo by Danny Parker)
BY JESSE SMITHEY
MURFREESBORO – All postseason long, one blowout win after another, with no variation to the pattern. For Greeneville boys’ basketball coach Brad Woolsey, he’d prefer it that way. That means his team is executing.
And that’s less stress on him, you know?
But on Friday at MTSU’s Murphy Center, the Stone Memorial boys’ basketball team gave the defending-champion Greene Devils a scare they hadn’t felt in a month.
“Hopefully, we’ll let this make us better,” said Woolsey.
Jakobi Gillespie scored a game high 32 points on 10-for-20 shooting, and Greeneville survived a Class 3A state semifinal against Stone Memorial, 59-55.
Stone Memorial (21-11) had the lead with 1 minute, 48 seconds, remaining.
Greeneville (30-6) had the veterans to fend off the upset. The Greene Devils made five of six at the foul line in the final 32 seconds to clinch.
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Greenevillle ran its win streak to 16 games and will take on South Side (25-3) in the state championship game at 1:30 p.m. Central time on Saturday in Murfreesboro. Greeneville won it all in 2A last season, knocking off South Side in the season finale by one point to win the program’s first-ever state title.
“This is what we’ve been working for all year,” said Gillespie, who also had seven rebounds and four assists. “We finally get to go play for it.”
Stone Memorial nearly denied Gillespie and Greeneville that opportunity. The Panthers’ energy and unrelenting defense helped them play Greeneville to just a one-point game heading into the fourth quarter, Greeneville leading.
And that tenacity continued the final eight minutes.
Matthew Bilbrey’s keen perimeter shooting paced the Panther offense after halftime, and his 3 with 5 minutes, 53 seconds, remaining cut Greeneville’s lead to 44-41. He proved big from deep during a the third quarter rally, as well, and finished with 18 points.
Bilbrey’s shot off the glass in the paint at the 4:37 mark finally brought Stone Memorial even with the Greene Devils.
And Cade Capps’ fadeaway jumper at the midpoint of the fourth tied it again, 47-47.
Capps’ 3 with 3:20 remaining gave Stone the lead for the first time Friday, 50-49. The 6-4 freshman had 14 points and 11 rebounds.
And after Gillespie fired back with a 3 some 15 seconds later to regain the advantage, Capps came right back at Greenville with a deep 3 in front of his father, Stone Memorial head coach Neil Capps.
The made 3 with 1:48 to play gave Stone a 53-52 lead.
Gillespie slashed into the lane on the opposite end, trying to make something happen. But senior forward Terry Grove put Gillespie’s miss for a 54-53 Greeneville lead with 1:33 to go.
Gillespie hit two foul shots with 31.2 to play to put Greeneville ahead 56-53.
Dylan Whittenburg of Stone Memorial had a corner 3 rattle in and out, nearly sending the Murphy Center into a frenzy.
Stone Memorial fouled Adjatay Dabbs on the ensuing possession. And Dabbs only made one of two foul shots with 11.1 remaining, but Grove got a steal following the miss.
The 6-5 senior made two foul shots with 5.8 to go to ice the win.
“I do feel comfortable with Terry at the line,” said Woolsey. “He’s a really a good free-throw shooter.
“I feel great with him at the line any night.”
Early signs Friday didn’t forecast a tight game.
Reid Satterfield, who had just six points, made his first 3.
Gillespie made his first jumper of the day, a mid-range shot just 39 seconds in the contest. But Stone Memorial managed to stay close in the early going thanks to going 7-for-8 at the foul line in the first eight minutes.
And as Stone Memorial draped multiple defenders on Gillespie, which prompted three turnovers by the Mr. Basketball winner in the first quarter, a massive Stone Memorial student section began its “over-rated” chant.
Mistake.
Woke the beast.
The Belmont signee reached the break with 16 points, breaking open a 15-13 contest midway through the second quarter. He scored the last 11 points of the first half for Greeneville, going 3-for-4 from the 3-point line in that 4-minute span. He also knocked down a couple technical-foul free throws at the 2:47 mark of the second quarter.
The Greene Devils led 26-18 at the break, despite an uncharacteristic 11 turnovers.
“First off, Stone Memorial did a great job. They did a great job of clogging the paint up,” said Woolsey. “They get a lot of kudos defensively. We couldn’t get to the basket much because of how much they clogged the lane.
“We didn’t do a great — me and everybody — of creating some space. That’s something we thrive on, creating in space. We didn’t do a very good job of that today. And as far as doing things that really got us going on Tuesday (in the quarterfinals), we didn’t really do a lot. They were beating us to loose balls. They were rebounding. All the things you have to do to be great, I don’t know that we did that today.”
Stone Memorial cut Greeneville’s lead to one point four times in the third. The Panthers sliced the halftime margin down to 29-28 with a 10-3 run in the first 3:30 of the third quarter.
Bilbrey, who kickstarted that spurt with an early 3, added another trey at the 3:32 mark of the third to cut Greeneville’s lead to 32-31. Capps’ floater in the lane made it just 34-33 Greeneville with 1:54 remaining in the quarter.
He scored again in the lane with 13 seconds left to trim Greeneville’s lead to 37-36.
Greenville only turned the ball over four times in the second half, a veteran team proving its mettle when nervy moments surfaced.
“I knew we needed to have the lead late in the game, when they start to foul us,” said Gillespie. “I was just trying to score quick.”
5STAR PHOTOS: Greeneville vs. Stone Memorial – Class 3A state semifinals (March 18, 2022)