Though hanging close to ’19 state champs, 1st BHS loss ‘not our best game’
After watching his team suffer its first loss of the 2019-20 season, Bearden High School girls basketball head coach Justin Underwood said he knew one thing was certain.
“This wasn’t our best game,” Underwood said after the Lady Bulldogs fell 36-26 to defending Class AAA state champion Bradley Central in the 5-Star Classic Thursday, Dec. 19, in Farragut High School’s Lynn E. Sexton Gymnasium. “We definitely didn’t play our best basketball, and you’re not going to win many basketball games when you only score 26 points.”
That was a season-low in points for the Lady Bulldogs (11-1). “I don’t know if it was finals or I don’t know if it was fatigue, or exactly what it was. But you have to credit Bradley,” Underwood said.
Never trailing, Bradley opened a 15-6 lead in the first half. But the Lady Bulldogs would find some offensive rhythm in the second stanza, using a 12-8 run in the frame to pull to within 23-18 by halftime.
But Bearden, which shot just 24.4 percent from the floor (11-for-45), did not have a player posting double figures in scoring.
Freshman Avery Treadwell led Bearden with nine points and 10 rebounds, while senior forward Jakhyia Davis (an East Tennessee State University signee) scored eight points and pulled down nine rebounds.
Bradley Central head coach Jason Reuter said his team “shot 33 percen ... and we still won — and Bearden has a great team.
“We don’t see them much during the regular season, but when we do it seems like the games are always like this,” he added. “Justin does a great job, and we see a lot of him in the summer.
“We’re good friends.”
Bradley Central’s Anna Walker led all scorers with 21 points.
