Green Hill girls basketball takes next step with first TSSAA state tournament win
MURFREESBORO – Aubrey Blankenship has been the key cog of Green Hill's girls basketball program since Day 1, three years ago.
On Tuesday, she helped the program take a giant step forward. Green Hill beat Clarksville 55-45 in a Class 4A quarterfinal at MTSU's Murphy Center on the opening day of the TSSAA BlueCross Girls Basketball State Championships. It marked the team's first state tournament win in its first appearance.
"This is a special group of kids," said first-year Green Hill coach Joseph Simmons. "I saw that on Day 1 in May when we had our first practice after I got the job. I saw the potential. I knew it wasn't going to be easy. I knew it was going to be tough."
Green Hill (18-16) plays Bartlett (33-7) at 10 a.m. Friday in a Class 4A semifinal. Bartlett beat Sevier County 57-37 in its state quarterfinal and boasts a Miss Basketball finalist in Mallory Collier. It will be the second Miss Basketball finalist Green Hill faces in the tournament as junior star Imari Berry led Clarksville with 17 points before fouling out.
The Lady Green Hawks enter the semifinals having won 7-of-9 games with both losses to Cookeville in the District 9-4A and Region 5-4A championship game.
All that means little for a program making history with every game.
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"All three years we've made the first game in the region and this year it was just, get over the hump," Blankenship said. "We were capable of winning last year and we didn't. I think after we won (the first game of the region this year), every game was a bonus.
"We knew it was a possibility to get here, but this is something you think about at the beginning of the year, 'Oh, we're making the state tournament.' You have to work for it, and winning is hard. It's not easy."
Blankenship, a Samford signee, scored a game-high 20 points including 11 of 15 from the free-throw line.
"She's a great player," Simmons said. "Going to Samford, which is a Division I school. She's put on a lot of time behind the scenes that a lot of people don't see. The thing I'm most proud of is she's embraced coaching and the defensive end.
"I"ve put her on the other team's best player a lot this year. She's never once wavered. We're on this run because of defense."
Reach Tom Kreager at 615-259-8089 or tkreager@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Kreager.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TSSAA basketball playoffs: Green Hill beats Clarksville, Imari Berry
