North Side's best season in 17 years ends in state tournament in loss to Greeneville
MURFREESBORO — During the postgame press conference, emotions were understandably high for North Side senior guards DJ Genesy and DeCameron DeMoss. The pair put their arms around each other as they fought back tears after losing their final high school game.
North Side (20-8was eliminated 71-37 by Greeneville (29-6) in the quarterfinals of the TSSAA Class 3A tournament on Tuesday at Middle Tennessee State's Murphy Center.
The loss was North Side's worst of the season, and while it will be a small blemish on its record, DeMoss said that the turnaround led by first-year coach Aaron Woods was impressive nonetheless.
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Woods spent the last four season as the coach at Liberty.
"For him to come in — in eight months not even a whole year and for us to go to the state tournament that shows that he really cares about this and that he is not doing for the money or nothing," said DeMoss, who had a team-high 13 points, six rebounds, one assist and one steal.
North Side finished last season 8-12. This season, North Side made it to the district championship and won the region title on the road at South Side. This was North Side's first state tournament berth since 2005.
"It's amazing how these guys bought in. They took me in — like I told them 'After this (season) we will always be family,' " Woods said. "I am just proud of them they came in and made history in one year. Who would've thought they would came in and done this?"
Woods said that the team success and resiliency is partially due to the parents and teaching intangibles that he didn't have to force upon the players.
"This group is resilient. Hats off to the parents. The parents have done an excellent job with these young men and have made my job so much easier as far as me just coming in here and being able to coach," Woods said. "We got down and the kids just kept fighting and fighting and as a coach I didn't have to coach effort. I could focus on the X's and O's . ... These are great kids and standup guys."
Genesy was the North Side's best scoring option down the stretch as he averaged 27 points per game in the region tournament.
He had seven points, nine rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block on Tuesday.
"I gave it my all to represent the whole city of Jackson," Genesy said.
This article originally appeared on Jackson Sun: North Side basketball best season in 17 years ends in state tournament
