After defeating Lake Oconee Academy twice already this season, Greene County fell to the Titans 54-37 in the first round of the Class A Division II Region 8 tournament on Monday.
The No. 6-seed Tigers will now miss out on the state playoffs with the loss to No. 7-seed LOA.
Greene County head coach Mark Wright warned his players the Titans could be dangerous before Monday’s game, especially after the Tigers defeated them in the two previous meetings.
“I think the guys didn’t have the same sense of urgency this time,” Wright said after the loss. “We took our eyes off the initial task at hand. I told my guys this was going to be a hard game. This wasn’t going to be a pushover game. They wanted to win it as bad as we did.”
Lake Oconee Academy did just that on Monday night. The Titans’ victory was also historic because it marked the first time in program history they had beaten Greene County.
Wright felt confident going into the game, although things escalated quickly following the opening tip-off.
“We had a good warmup before the game,” Wright said. “I felt like we looked confident and focused. When the game started, we just had our minds melt. We couldn’t retain plays in the beginning. people were in the wrong spots and our execution was also terrible.”
After falling behind early, Greene County settled in and trailed 35-30 late in the second half. However, the Tigers fell apart in the final eight minutes and the Titans were able to pull away.
Wright acknowledged his players couldn’t put together “a full 32 minutes” against LOA.
“The theme (this season) has us not being able to play a full 32 minutes on both sides of the ball,” he said. “We’re capable of doing it because we’ve done it before … but just couldn’t this time.”
Heading into next season, Greene County hopes to fix those types of things. The Tigers have been through a lot this year, and are a young team, with mostly underclassmen on the roster.
Wright believes the adversity his players faced this year will only benefit them next season.
“I’m proud of the foundation we’ve built and what we've accomplished so far,” Wright said. “I don’t see it as a failure because we have so many young guys, and we had a lot of sophomores this year. A lot of the teams we played against this year were older and more experienced, while we only had one senior and two juniors.
"The rest are freshmen and sophomores," he added. "So, I feel good about the next few years. The future is bright I think it’s going to be a good fit for us.”
In Wright’s first year, Greene County was 7-18 overall. That’s a slight improvement from when the Tigers went 6-17 last year under former head coach Duane Kelly in his only season. There are also several other positive takeaways from the 2022-23 season.
Greene County will return contributors such as Laryous Burt, Steve Miller, and RJ Monford, among others, next season. The Tigers are looking forward to building off this year and continuing to improve under Wright heading into 2023-24.
Wright described Monday’s loss to Lake Oconee Academy as an “eye-opener.”
“(Monday) was an eye-opener for a lot of the guys because they weren’t expecting to lose,” Wright said. “LOA has a good coach, despite their record, and is a good team. They played with high energy and were the better team that day. They deserved to win.”
Wright plans to get right back to work with his players who aren’t participating in spring sports.
“I don’t take any days off,” he said. “I had several guys ask me (this week) when we’re going to get back in the gym, and that’s what you want to see as a coach. They’re buying in.”