Bearden advances with ease
A dominant season continued to steamroll on for the Bearden High School’s boys basketball team Saturday night, Feb. 28, in the first round of the Region 2-4A Tournament.
The Bulldogs made short work of Powell, dispatching the Panthers, 78-39, at Bearden High School.
The Bulldogs’ victory over Powell assured a sweep for District 4-4A in the opening round of the regional. Bearden, Oak Ridge, Farragut and Hardin Valley all recorded wins over the top teams in District 3-4A, including the Panthers, Knoxville West, Knoxville Halls and Knox Central.
“This is going to basically be a replay of our district tournament,” Bearden coach Jeremy Parrott said. “I’m not surprised that our district won all four of those games.
“They moved Oak Ridge over here and they haven’t had a challenge in that other district for a long time and I’m not surprised that Hardin Valley beat Central.”
The Bulldogs (33-1) suffered their only loss to St. Thomas Aquinas (Florida) at an elite tournament in the Tri-Cities over the winter holiday break.
Justin Nordin scored 26 points for Bearden while Sean Capshaw had 20 for the Bulldogs in a game whose outcome was never in doubt.
“I think it helped us having a home game,” Parrott said. “You always want to be at home in those situations in the first round.”
“We survived and advanced and that’s the name of the game at this point of the season.”
The Bulldogs, who played the Hawks Tuesday in the semifinals, will now host the remainder of the region tournament. Semifinal results were not available at press time.
