BRISTOL — Who woulda thunk it? Who woulda actually thunk it?
That would be hard to say, but apparently Greeneville believed it.
In one of the major upsets in the history of this prestigious basketball tournament, Greeneville shocked nationally ranked Dr. Phillips (Fla.) 76-72 in Wednesday night’s quarterfinal round of the 38th Arby’s Classic at Viking Hall.
“It’s pretty euphoric,’’ Greene Devils coach Brad Woolsey said afterward. “Man, I don’t know. It’s one of those you just want to savor.”
Greeneville overcame a frightful start — Dr. Phillips led 9-0 barely two minutes in and had three dunks in the first period — to beat the nation’s 17th-ranked team.
Jakobi Gillespie scored 35 points to lead the winners, but he had tons of help.
“We talked about coming into this game that we had to be tough,” Woolsey said. “We had to be nasty and we had to be tough.
“There at the beginning we were a little bit soft, but we toughened up and locked in, and then we just made plays. People talk about strategy and stuff, but it comes down to kids making plays, it really does.”
It was 6-foot-1 Adjatay Dabbs who made plays early, scoring on three straight trips down the floor to quickly get Greeneville back to within 11-7.
A junior guard, Dabbs scored 13 of his 18 points in the first half to help the Greene Devils trail by just 34-32 at intermission. He finished 6 of 7 from the floor, including 4 of 5 from 3-point range, and had three steals.
“If you’ve got guys who can make shots then you’ve got a chance,” Woolsey said. “Look at Adjatay in the first quarter. He was huge, I mean huge, and everyone picked it up after that.
“If he’d not made those shots, we probably would’ve been run out of the gym.”
Against a squad which features Division 1 signees to programs like Kansas, Florida and Mississippi State, the second half belonged to Greeneville seniors Jakobi Gillespie and Reid Satterfield.
A 6-4 wing with a feathery stroke, Satterfield collected three of his four 3-pointers in the second half to finish with 16 points. His 3 from the right wing gave Greeneville a 52-50 lead with 5:53 left in the game and his triple from the same spot made it a 58-52 margin with 3:32 left.
“I don’t know if I was really feeling it, but I felt my teammates behind me,” said Satterfield, who was 5 of 8 from the floor. “I just knew we had a bunch of momentum coming from the crowd and that the coaches trusted me.”
As usual, Gillespie carried Greeneville home.
The athletic 6-2 guard knocked down a 3-pointer to keep the Devils out front at 55-52 before he put the Panthers away at the foul line down the stretch.
Gillespie converted 14 of 18 free throws in the last 3:21 of the game.
“I was going to have the ball in my hands,” Gillespie said.
Two of his free throws came following a technical foul against Dr. Phillips coach Ben Witherspoon, who dodged the press room following the game.
Witherspoon’s club got a 30-point outing from Denzel Aberdeen and a 16-point game from Jackson Slater, but Greeneville defensive workhorses Terry Grove and Jackson Tillery helped hold two of the Panthers’ signees — 6-10 Ernest Udeh and 6-5 Riley Kugel — to single digits in the scorebook.
“We had some flaws,” Kugel said before getting on the team bus. “We could have executed better. The game didn’t go in our favor.”
Greeneville shot 53.7% from the field, including 12 of 21 from 3-point range.
The Panthers, who went to the foul line 11 times compared to Greeneville’s 24 trips, connected on 56.9% of its floor attempts. They were just 7 of 21 from beyond the arc, however.
Both teams committed a dozen turnovers.
Greeneville plays Berkmar (Ga.) in tonight’s 7 o’clock semifinal.
AMARILLO 56, JONESBORO 43
The Sandies of Amarillo, Texas, recovered from a sluggish start and used a 22-4 spurt through the second quarter to claim a 56-43 quarterfinal victory over Jonesboro (Ark.).
Amarillo, which shot a torrd 62.5% for the game to offset 19 turnovers, got it done with great defense, limiting Jonesboro to just a 32% clip from the floor.
The Sandies were led by sharp-shooting Brendan Hausen, a 6-foot-6 Villanova signee who scored 19 points, hitting 4 of 7 shots from 3-point range. Damonze Woods and Cade Hornecker scored 15 and 10 points, respectively, in support.
Isaac Harrell was the lone player for Jonesboro’s Golden Hurricane to reach double digits, finishing with 14 points.
LONG ISLAND LUTHERAN 85, TAMPA CATHOLIC 54
Long Island Lutheran ran out to an overwhelming early lead and rolled to an 85-54 win over Tampa (Fla.) Catholic in Wednesday’s last quarterfinal game.
Lutheran led 24-9 after one period and it was all downhill from there for the nationally-ranked Crusaders of New York.
James Johns had his second straight 20-point game to pace the Crusaders, who received 16 points from Jayden Reid, 15 from Amdy Ndiaye and 13 from Providence signee Jayden Pierre.
Lutheran shot a blistering 65.5% from the floor and hit 8 of 13 3-point shots.
Tampa Catholic, which connected on just 27.6% of its field goal attempts, was led by the 17-point outing of Karter Knox. Eddrin Bronson knocked in 13 and Karmello Branch provided 10 for the Crusaders.
Lutheran’s Crusaders meet Amarillo in tonight’s 8:30 semifinal.