Greeneville rolled out to a decisive 26-0 lead before Claiborne was able to score in the second quarter and went on to take an easy 61-42 victory over the Lady Bulldogs in the eighth annual Landair Transport Tip-Off Classic Basketball Tournament Wednesday night at Hal Henard Gym.

The Grainger girls took advantage of a slow start by Sevier County to take a 59-47 victory in the opening contest of the evening and will take on the Lady Devils in the first game at 12:00 p.m. Saturday to determine fifth place in the tourney.

Sullivan South blitzed the Grainger Grizzles 75-45 in the first evening boys' contest.

Sullivan Central, holding a 14 point lead with just over six minutes left, decided to pull back to let the clock run, saw the lead dwindle down to three points with just under two minutes left, then added to the suspense by missing four times at the line before cashing in on eight of 13 at the line down the stretch to take a 69-63 victory.

With the win, the Cougars will be taking on cross county rival Sullivan South to settle fifth place in the boys bracket at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

For the convenince of football fans wanting to watch Greeneville and Elizabethton play football Friday, tournament officials made a slight change in the tournament schedule.

The Morristown West Lady Trojans will play Elizabethton at 1:30 p.m. in the first semifinal game of the day.

The two boys semifinal games will follow beginning with Knoxville Bearden against Morristown East at 3:00 p.m. The Greeneville boys will follow at 4:30 p.m. meeting Sevier County.

The Bearden and Unicoi County girls semifinal round will close out the evening with a 6 p.m. tip-off.

Greeneville raced off to a 26-0 lead before Claiborne could score midway of the second period on their way to an easy 61-42 victory.

With reserves logging more playing time than starters after GHS built the lead to 37-7 by the intermission break, the Lady Devils played all 12 that dressed with eight getting into the scoring column as coach Stacia Crumbley allowed her non-starters plenty of playing time in the contest.

The final score does not paint a clear picture of where the contest was headed before halftime.

Samantha Fender (16), Rainey Story (11) and Morgan Shipley (11) were virtually unstoppable around the basket in gaining total control of the contest before the break.

Claiborne outscored the Greeneville reserves 35-24 in the second half, led by Ariel Nickell (12) and Amy Estepp (10).

In the first game of the evening, Laura Johnson (18), Mara Maples (11) and Taylor Lamb (11) led the Lady Grizzles to the 59-47 victory over Sevier County to earn the berth against Greeneville Friday.

Hailey Tackett (12) led the Smokey Bears.

Sullivan South had three in double figure scoring led by Tyler Moore (24) that included five three-pointers, Ethan Bates (15) and Logan Blair (14) to take the 75-45 win over Grainger's boys.

Andy Farmer scored 17 that included five three-pointers followed by Rafael Jackson with 11.

Nathan Vannoy with 27 points provided the main offensive punch in leading the Sullivan Central Cougars to the 69-63 win over the Morristown West Trojans.

Anthony Sanders (18), Elliott Stone (14) and Chad Brooks (11) paced the Trojans.