Cedar Bluff boys, FMS girls hoops grab wins
KNOXVILLE — Farragut Middle School boys basketball head coach Randy Swartzentruber said his team “kept playing hard” despite a prolonged scoring slump proving costly in a 41-37 loss at Cedar Bluff Monday, Dec. 16.
About his team’s third-quarter drought, a big reason FMS fell to 6-6 in Knox County Middle School Basketball Conference play, “it seemed like it was the whole quarter,” Swartzentruber said.
“In the second half we did a better job defensively and we didn’t let them get around us for shots,” Giants head coach J.T. Hicks said.
Parker Lane had a game-high 16 points for FMS, which led 26-22 before Giant Nic Hodge took over.
Nic scored 10 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter, while Jackson Clark also had 13 for CBMS (10-3).
KNOXVILLE -— The free throw line wasn’t a friendly place for the Farragut Middle School girls basketball team Monday night.
The Lady Admirals shot 10-for-19 from the charity stripe — but Farragut point guard Annie Priest knocked down some clutch foul shots late.
Annie made six of her eight fourth-quarter free throw attempts to lift Farragut to a 36-29 victory at Cedar Bluff in a Knox County Middle School Basketball Conference contest Dec. 16.
“We were 10-for-19 at the free throw line ... “but Annie made some really big ones in the fourth quarter,” FMS first-year head coach Devan McIntyre said.
Annie scored eight of her 13 points over the final six minutes of the game and accounted for the vast majority of Farragut’s offensive output down the stretch. Farragut’s only other two points of the frame came on a field goal by Kaitlyn Atwell.
Farragut (10-2 in league play) jumped out to an 18-7 lead by the end of the first quarter against the Lady Giants (9-4). “We finally got some energy in the second half,” said CBMS coach Chad Davis, whose team was led by Gracie Waite’s 11 points.
