GATLINBURG — The West Greene Buffaloes entered Tuesday night’s contest at Gatlinburg-Pittman Highlanders with upset on their minds, but what the visitors got was blown out.

After West Greene (2-5) grabbed a surprising 14-12 lead halfway through the opening quarter, G-P (7-0) responded with a 20-0 run over the next four minutes en route to an 82-56 Blue-and-Gold victory.

G-P senior McKinley Maples led the way with 17 points, followed by junior Jose Agosto’s 16. Junior Garrett Buckner came through with a double-double on 10 points and 10 boards.

Junior Morrease “Mo” Barber turned in another strong performance with seven points, nine boards and five assists. Barber could score a lot more if he wasn’t such a good teammate.

“Morrease is very unselfish,” said G-P coach Raul Placeres. “And he plays a lot of positions for us. He can do everything on the court.”

Senior Marquise Wall scored all seven of his points at the start of the game, also adding four rebounds and two steals.

Senior Jake Jackson came through with eight points off the bench, and senior Drew Barton scored just two points but grabbed five boards and led the team defensively.

“Drew is my warrior,” said Placeres. “He knows his job is to come in the game and play defense and grab the rebounds for us. That’s what I love about him.”

As a team, G-P shot an astounding 75 percent (21-of-28) in the first half.

The Highlanders next travel to county and District 3-AA rival Pigeon Forge Tigers on Friday night.

G-P beats A-E by 3

KNOXVILLE — The Highlanders boys’ basketball squad came up with a historic win at District 3-AA rival Austin-East Roadrunners on Monday night, 50-47.

Although the Highlanders (7-0, 1-0) didn’t perform up to their potential, they did enough to come through with reportedly the first Blue-and-Gold victory at the Roadrunners home court in school history.

In what’s becoming a common occurrence this season, Maples — who’s been averaging a consistent 16 points per game — led the Blue-and-Gold with 15 points, also chipping in three steals and a pair of boards.

But nobody was bigger than Buckner, who scored 13 points with 11 of them coming in the fourth quarter.

Other key contributors were Agosto with seven points, Barton with six ticks, four steals and four boards, Barber with just four points but nine rebounds and senior Jake Jackson with two points on a timely fourth-quarter field goal that gave G-P the lead inside three minutes.

G-P girls lose 52-44

GATLINBURG — It was a roller coaster night Tuesday for the Lady Highlanders, but in the end the Gatlinburg-Pittman train got derailed by visiting West Greene Lady Buffaloes, 52-44.

“We’re just in search of a scorer,” said G-P coach Mike Rader. “Right now, we just don’t have anybody consistently scoring. We’ve got two or three that will do it in spurts, but nothing on a consistent basis.”

After exploding for 20 points in the opening quarter, the Lady Highlanders (3-2) had trouble scoring the rest of the night.

But after falling into a nine-point hole with less than five minutes remaining, the Lady Highlanders made a comeback.

When junior Beka Owens drained a trey with 44.59 seconds on the clock, the West Greene (3-4) edge was trimmed to 46-44.

But the Lady Buffaloes converted 8-of-8 from the charity stripe in the final minute of the game — and 12-of-12 for the fourth quarter — to hold off the Blue and Gold by six.

Owens and sophomore Sami John led the Lady Highlanders with seven points, juniors Macy Shults and Steph Taylor had six apiece, and freshman Karsen Sims and junior Morgan Dodgen had five each in the losing effort.

G-P next travels to county and district rival Pigeon Forge on Friday night.