Lady Ads’ ‘smart, not smart;’ fall short versus Alcoa 49-45
Farragut High School girls basketball head coach Jason Mayfield couldn’t help but think his team let a win slip away Thursday, Nov. 16, in FHS’s Lynn E. Sexton Gymnasium.
“We didn’t play smart tonight,” Mayfield said after his Lady Admirals dropped a 49-45 decision to Alcoa. “We won by three on Tuesday [Nov. 14 versus White County] and we played pretty smart.
“The difference between Tuesday and tonight is that we were smart Tuesday. Tonight, we just weren’t very smart.
“We were ahead by five and we let [Lady Tornadoes guard Destiny Haworth hit back-to-back 3–pointers]. We have to know where the 3-point shooters are. We have to do a better job recognizing that.”
It was a game that was tightly contested.
Farragut had a 43-38 lead after sophomore wing Claire Wyatt grabbed an offensive rebound and buried the second-chance basket with 4 minutes, 10 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
After that, however, Haworth took over the game. Her long-range jumper with 3:06 left gave Alcoa [2-0 after the win] the lead for good.
Haworth scored 17 of her game-high 23 points after halftime.
“She hit some big-time shots for us tonight,” Lady Tornadoes head coach David Baumann said. “She had a big second half for us.
“This game really could have gone either way, but Destiny really stepped up for us tonight.”
Haworth may have provided the bulk of the offensive punch Alcoa needed to capture a hard-earned early-season road victory on this night, but it was another player who contributed on the defensive end.
“[Brooke Christian] had 12 points for them in the second quarter and then we put Madison McClung on her,” Baumann said. “Madison did a tremendous job on her defensively in the second half and I don’t think she scored after she had that big second quarter.”
Christian, a junior guard/forward, did score two points after halftime. She was held without a field goal over the final 16 minutes of the contest — making a pair of free throws in the third stanza.
Christian led Farragut [1-1 after the loss] with 14 points. Her 12 in the second quarter helped the Lady Admirals take a 23-21 lead by halftime
She led a balanced FHS scoring attack. Morgan Carbaugh added eight points and veteran post player Sydney Chapman had six points.
Wyatt, Bri Tookes and Madison Hodge each finished the game with five points.
Mayfield said he hopes his team’s first two games will serve as a learning experience as it attempts to bounce back from last year’s disappointing 12-14 campaign.
“We’ve had a 3-point win and a four-point loss,” he said. “And I told the girls that you can learn valuable lessons from both of these games.
“You can take valuable things from both of these games and you can get better,” Mayfield added.
Christian said, “Right now, it’s all about communication. We just have to talk more. We just have to stay focused and involved for the whole game.”
