‘Wonderful’ BHS season despite 1st-round state loss
MURFREESBORO — All good things must come to an end, and a magical 2020-21 season for the Bearden High School girls basketball team came to a screeching halt Thursday, March 11.
The Lady Bulldogs saw their campaign end with a 48-39 loss to Hardin County in the TSSAA Class AAA Tournament quarterfinals in Middle Tennessee State University’s Murphy Center.
“It was a difficult ending to a wonderful season,” BHS head coach Justin Underwood said. “We did a lot of great things in a very difficult year.
“We want to win championships, and we did that this year when we won (District 4-AAA), the district tournament, and then we won the Region (2-AAA) tournament.”
The Lady Bulldogs (30-2), completing a perfect run through District 4-AAA in both the league and district tournament, suffered their only other loss of the season at Alcoa.
They knocked off Ensworth in Nashville, ending the 2019 and 2020 Division II-AA state champ’s long winning streak, while sweeping district foe and state tourney semifinalist Maryville four times. Bearden also defeated Kingston Pike rival Farragut three times and posted a late-season win against Division II-AA state runner-up Knoxville Catholic.
In the Lady Bulldogs’ season finale, junior guard Jennifer Sullivan scored 11 points and pulled down five rebounds.
Emily Gonzalez added nine points, while sophomore post Avery Treadwell scored eight points and grabbed a team-high 15 rebounds.
Senior guard Zneyah McLaughlin scored five points and had six rebounds while recording three steals in her final high school hoops game.
McLaughlin is one of three BHS seniors along with Reagan Ruth and Natalie Rice.
Against the Lady Tigers, with a final record of 21-3, Bearden had 11 of its shots blocked. Hardin County post Skyler Gill, who had six swats, holds the single-game state record for blocks at 15. She also pulled down 15 rebounds versus Bearden.
“We knew that she had the record with 15 in a game, and we talked about pump-faking and making the extra pass,” Underwood said. “But when we got into the flow of the game we didn’t do that.”
Reese Harville led Hardin County in scoring with 14.
