Farragut pushes, Bearden prevails
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Farragut’s Dan Lanning (2) drives to the hoop on Friday, Feb. 6, at Farragut High School. Lanning led the Admirals with 19 points, but FHS ultimately came up short in a 70-57 loss to Bearden. - Jake Nichols
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Top left: Bearden’s Emma Rainey (20) celebrates with teammate MC LeMarbre (11) after LeMarbre hit a layup and drew a foul on Friday, Feb. 6, at Farragut High School. LeMarbre scored a career-high 25 points for the Lady Bulldogs, helping Bearden storm back from a 12-point deficit. - Jake Nichols
Friday, Jan. 16, both Farragut teams struggled against Bearden in their first meetings this season.
Three weeks later, they pushed valiantly for different results.
Neither the Lady Admirals’ hot start nor the Ads’ late run proved quite enough, however, as the Bulldogs swept FHS in two matchups on Friday, Feb. 6, to lock up the top seeds in District 4-4A.
BHS won 64-58 in the girls’ game, storming back from a 12-point deficit. And Jeremy Parrott’s Bearden squad won 70-57, holding off a Farragut team that trimmed a 23-point margin to as little as eight.
Natalya Hodge led the Lady Bulldogs with 29 points while MC LeMarbre put up a career-high 25. They outscored a Farragut team that nailed a whopping 11 3-pointers, eight in the first half with four each from Zoe Porter and Gabbie VanAcker.
“Basketball is a simple game,” Bearden girls coach Justin Underwood said. “The team that wins is the one that plays harder and wants it more, and I think (Farragut) did in the first half. They shot the lights out of it, and their fans and kids were into it. But I felt like we started picking away at it in the third quarter. We know what we get in Natalya, but I thought MC was a huge lift for us.”
For FHS, VanAcker scored 18 on six triples. The last one brought FHS back within two with 1:47 left before a late turnover allowed Bearden to salt the game away.
Lady Ads coach Jason Mayfield noted the output marked a result of VanAcker’s hard work, as it was her greatest total since returning from a brutal knee injury.
Meanwhile, Porter totaled 15 with 14 from KJ McNealy to put her alongside FHS guard Parker Lane in the 1,500-point club.
Neither Lane’s output nor Dan Lanning’s 19 points were enough to stymie Bearden in the boys’ matchup, as Justin Nordin led the Bulldogs with 31 points on the night.
“He made a bunch of shots early and got us going,” Parrott said. “The way they were guarding him, those are shots he is going to take, and most of the time he’ll make them.”
Sean Capshaw added 16 points for the Dawgs while Reid Vining and Matthew Dickens scored 12 and 11, respectively, for FHS.
The Admirals’ push came after Bearden drew a technical that left Parrott confused and frustrated.
“I was standing on the sideline, and Capshaw comes up and walks around me and says something to me about not thinking he fouled the shooter. He says, ‘He’s on the court saying that!’ But he was walking around me to go sit, so I’m really not sure.”
Parrott added his being relegated to the bench brought lapses in communication, thus giving Farragut “some life we shouldn’t have given them.”
The Ads reeled off a 21-8
run to trim the margin to single digits but could not come any closer.
“At their place, we didn’t even compete. (Friday) we did, and we have improved since we played them before,” Admirals coach J.P. Burris said. “And Dan, to his credit, wasn’t scared. He did not back down.”
