Re-establishing control
MVP Hodge, Bearden girls get revenge on Lady Ads, win 4-4A tourney title
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Bearden’s Lady Bulldogs celebrate, with plaque in hand, a District 4-4A Tournament championship Monday night, Feb. 19. - Alan Sloan
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Farragut Lady Admirals, District 4-4A Tournament runner-up. - Alan Sloan
MARYVILLE — Two weeks ago, Farragut High School’s girls’ basketball team broke a six-year-plus losing streak to archrival Bearden.
Monday night, Feb. 19, in the District 4-4A championship game at Maryville High School, the Lady Bulldogs started a new win streak.
Bearden’s 41-32 victory was a scrappy, turnover-plagued game that saw the Lady Admirals (18-11) struggle all night to hit shots. Their difficulty was due, at least in part, to stout defense by Bearden (27-2).
“We try to hang our hat on defense; they had 17 at half,” said Justin Underwood, BHS head coach. “Finished with 32. I couldn’t be prouder of our kids for defending.”
“It’s never just about making shots,” FHS head coach Jason Mayfield said. “That’s part of it, but we just didn’t do that tonight. We got more aggressive as the game went on but it was too little, too late.”
Other than Farragut’s four-point lead for 15 seconds in the first quarter, neither team led by more than two throughout the first half.
In the first period, Lady Bulldogs sophomore point-guard Natalya Hodge, eventual tournament Most Valuable Player, scored eight on two lay-ups and four free throws.
Lady Admirals sophomore forward KJ McNealy countered with nine on three three-point shots. Farragut led 14-12 after one.
Points were hard to come by for both teams in the second as Farragut scored a mere three points. The Lady Bulldogs’ seven in the period gave them a 19-17 halftime lead.
Bearden took control in the third by scoring the first eight points to lead 27-17. Six of the points came from a pair of threes by junior forward Aisha Patel. The period ended with BHS up 31-22.
The Lady Admirals would get no closer than seven in the fourth. After McNealy’s last three-pointer late in the first quarter, all the rest of Farragut’s many three-attempts were no good until point-guard Jaci Neubert hit a trey with 24 seconds left. By then it was too late.
“We said ‘we should play defense and offense will take care of itself,’” Patel said.
“It just wasn’t our night,” Farragut senior forward Mya Johnston said.
“Defensively we were right there, but offensively we couldn’t knock one down,” Mayfield said.
Hodge led all scorers with 16. McNealy was high for Farragut with 12.
Joining Hodge on the All-Tournament team for BHS were Patel, Kendall Anne Murphy and Rachael Wilhoit.
Neubert, McNealy and Johnston were Farragut’s All-tourney honorees.
The Lady Admirals will host Halls, No. 3 seed from District 3-4A, in the first round of the Regional 2-4A Tournament. Bearden will entertain Karns, 3-4A tourney No. 4 finisher. Both games start at 7 p.m., Friday night, Feb. 23.
