Devils snap West Greene comeback attempt with last-second basket

The Unicoi County boys basketball team was finally challenged in a District 1-2A matchup, but Jackson Simmons and the Blue Devils were up for it. Simmons capped a 32-point performance with a game-winning basket with two seconds remaining, lifting the Devils to a 58-56 defeat of West Greene on Thursday night in the Devils Den. The Blue Devils (7-0, 14-7), which clinched at least a share of the district title, defeated West Greene 61-39 on Jan. 13, but the Buffaloes were without senior point guard Elijah Williams, who returned from an extended absence to score 17 points in Erwin. But Simmons always had an answer. He scored the final 10 points of the first quarter to give the Blue Devils a 21-8 lead and scored the Blue Devils' final six points of the game. "Jackson had 32 points and hit the game-winning shot with 2.2 seconds left," Unicoi County coach Brandon Broyles said. Freshman guard A.J. Thomas was invaluable for the Blue Devils, too. "A.J. was huge in the fourth quarter," Broyles said. "He was 4-of-5 from three, 6-of-7 from the floor, and finished with 18 points. Cade Peterson hit a big three, did a great job getting to the rim to start the third quarter, and knocked down a key free throw." West Greene got 17 points from 6-foot-4 sophomore Tytus Shelton. "First off, you've got to give West Greene a lot of credit," Broyles said. "We jumped out 21–8 after the first quarter, but they kept battling and outscored us 14–7 in the second quarter. I felt like after the first quarter we didn't shoot it very well, and we didn't play with the same urgency on the defensive end. "We only got up 40 shots for the game, which is low for us. Normally we're in the 50s or 60s. So, you've got to tip your hat to Coach (Allen) Tolliver and West Greene for controlling the tempo and breaking our press." The game was preceded by a five-day, weather-related layoff for the Blue Devils. "You could tell our legs went a little quicker and we weren't as sharp, but that takes nothing away from how hard West Greene played," Broyles said. "I'm proud of our guys for gutting it out and finding a way to win when we weren't playing our best." Unicoi County won its first six league games all by double-digit margins. "It was good for us to be in a close game," Broyles said. "And it was good to see our kids respond when things weren't going our way. Elijah Williams was really good for them. He scored 19 and did a great job getting them into their offense. … "Overall, I'm really pleased with our team's effort. It was a hard-fought conference win, and in this league anybody can beat anybody on a given night." The Blue Devils are scheduled to visit Happy Valley on Tuesday and host Chuckey-Doak on Friday. "If we can get one more win in our next three league games, we'll secure the regular-season conference championship, which was one of our goals coming into the year," Broyles said. "Like we talked about in the locker room, our main goal is just to keep getting better and hopefully be playing our best basketball when tournament time gets here in a couple of weeks." Broyles would like to see a big turnout in the Devils Den for the Chuckey-Doak matchup – or matchups. He coached the Unicoi County girls team prior to this season. "I'd really like to encourage everyone to come out and support us," he said. "Let's have a great student section Friday night and rally behind both teams. The girls are playing really well right now, so let's get behind them too. This is a big stretch for both programs. We want to create a home-court advantage that makes it tough for teams to come in here and play." Unicoi County's game at Johnson County scheduled for Jan. 27 has been rescheduled for Feb. 9.