FHS boys ‘played great’ despite tourney title loss
First off, senior wing Aiden VanAcker has a career performance offensively, scoring 29 points that included nailing seven three-point jumpers.
“I think our guys played great — quite honestly that’s the best we’ve played all year,” Burris said. “We had high energy, we competed the whole time.
“There was just a different type of effort from our guys tonight than there has been the first five games,” he added.
“I told them if we played like that our first five games we’d be 5-1 right now.”
Instead, Farragut entered this week with a 3-3 record.
“But our guys did a phenomenal job. I’m proud of them,” Burris said.
About Aiden’s offensive performance, “That’s probably his career high” in points, Burris said. “He was on fire — and he wasn’t taking bad shots.
“Very under control, very within himself,” the coach added. “That’s a credit to him, because he’s really worked on doing more than just catching and shooting threes. And tonight he displayed some of the other things he can do offensively.”
Aiden’s brother, junior wing/forward Dominic VanAcker, scored 20 against a tough man-to-man Falcons defense, with senior post Berkley Naro adding 13 and sophomore guard Parker Lane scoring nine.
“I really thought Dom played well,” Burris said about the 6-foot-3 junior. Dominic and Parker were also right there as far as keeping us afloat on the offensive end.”
In addition, “Dom gets a lot of rebounds for us that go unrecognized,” Burris said. “And Parker did a really good job of getting into the lane and kicking it to shooters like Aiden.”
Free throw woes
“The only thing I’m frustrated about is we never could get to the free throw line,” Burris said, as Farragut earned only four free throws against Fulton, making three. The Falcons earned 10 trips to the line, converting eight.
“We’re trying to put an emphasis on attacking downhill, so we can try and draw some more fouls and get to the free throw line,” the coach added.
Other games
Destroying Karns 84-38 in the semifinal round Friday, Nov. 24, Dominic led the winners with 19 points followed by Lane with 14.
Naro scored eight, followed by Britton Lewis and Tony Spadafora with six each.
Opening tourney play with a dominant 68-46 victory against McMinn County Monday, Nov. 20, Dominic against led the way with 20 points. Aiden added 12, followed by senior reserve post Claudio Song with 11.
