Greenville High School got off to a quick start Saturday night en route to a 54-46 win against Calhoun High School in Greenville.

Both teams played strong defense in the game’s opening period, surrendering just eight points each. However, Greenville was able to steal a small lead by outpacing Calhoun 16-5 in the second period.

Greenville head coach Richard Kelly said he told his team it was all about reaching the maximum potential at the right moment.

“I’ve told the boys from day one that we need to be playing well in late January and early February and that’s what we’re doing,” Kelly said. “By this time, our area tournament is coming up and we have to be playing our best right now.”

Greenville held on to its lead for the rest of the game with Kelly going into the fourth period all smiles with the 40-27 lead the team had built.

However, Calhoun found some momentum and began to put pressure on Greenville to wind the clock and make as few mistakes as possible.

“I don’t want to say we had built a comfortable lead because you can never get comfortable around basketball,” Kelly said. “We were executing. We preached all year that if you execute the offense and you execute the defense, good things are going to happen and it did tonight.”

Greenville turned up the defense in the last minute of the game ending any hope of a Calhoun comeback.

“I’m thrilled,” Kelly said. “I’m completely ecstatic right now. Not only for myself, but for the school and for these boys.”

Sophomore Marvin Davidson led the Tigers with 13 points, junior Kent Riley scored 10, sophomore Debryant Crenshaw added eight and freshman Javarrius Cheatham chipped in six points for Greenville.