An explosive first quarter allowed the Lady Rebels to get past Hampton 65-54 Tuesday night at South Greene High School.

However, the Lady Bulldogs did not make it easy.

In the third quarter Hampton trailed 40-26, before chopping the Lady Rebels’ lead down to ten points heading into the fourth. In the final frame, with strong defense and 6-consecutive points by Alexus Grubb,  Hampton cut the Lady Rebels lead to 52-48 with roughly five minutes to play. However, South Greene’s Taylor Lamb responded with two from the charity stripe to make it a 6-point game. Grubbs nailed two free throws of her own to cut the gap back to four points with four minutes to play, but the Lady Rebels held steady for the remained of the game to pull away with a Watauga Valley Conference win.

 In the first quarter, the Lady Rebels were able to jump out to a 28-14 lead, before keeping up their pace in the second to hold a 40-26 edge heading into the the half.

Despite the loss, Lady Bulldogs head coach Bud Hazelwood was happy to see what his team can do, especially against the conference favorite Lady Rebels.

“We played well the second half,” he said. “South Greene is a good team, but my bunch showed me something tonight. . . We just have to keep chugging along.”

South Greene was led by Lamb, who posted a whopping 24 points, while her teammate Braelyn Wykle followed closely with 23.

On Hampton’s side of the ball, Grubbs posted 18 points, while Shyanne Tuelle had 15. Megan Garland, who had 12 points during Hampton’s win over Unicoi Saturday, saw some good looks under the rim Tuesday night as she provided seven. Bree Hoyle finished the night with six, while Hope Bridgeman found the space to get in five points. Kenezey Hill closed things out with three.

Girls

S.Greene 65-54

Hampton 14 12 14 14 — 54

S. Greene 28 12 10 15 — 65

Hampton 54

Alexus Grubbs 18, Shyanne Tuelle 15, Megan Garland 7, Bree Hoyle 6, Hope Bridgeman 5, Kenezey Hill 3.

S. Greene 65

Taylor Lamb 24, Braelyn Wykle 23, Katilynn Franklin 8, T.K. Franklin 4, Lyndsey Cutshaw 3, Morgan Williams 3.

3pt goals— Hampton 5 (Grubbs 2, Tuelle 1, Bridgeman 1, Hill 1) S. Greene 5 (B. Wykle 3, Franklin 2)