2nd at RecruitMe T’Giving tourney for Lady Admirals

Though things slipped away from the Farragut Lady Admirals in the second half against a Gatlinburg-Pittman team, FHS head coach Jason Mayfield said was “better than pretty good — that’s a really good team” — his girls still finished as Farragut Thanksgiving RecruitMe Tournament runner-ups.

Led by 2,000-plus career points scorer Maddie Newman with a game-high 19 points, “Their top three players are really, really good,” Mayfield added about GPHS after a 62-36 loss in the championship game Saturday night, Nov. 25, in FHS’s Lynn E. Sexton Gymnasium. “And their role players are really, really good, too. When they were open they knocked (shots) down.”

Among his players, Mayfield praised junior guard Jaci Neubert for keeping Farragut close in the third quarter for a while by “making shots; she was getting open.”

Nailing a trio of three-point jumpers in the third quarter, while finishing with a team-high 15 points, “She can really shoot the ball,” the coach added about Neubert. “And we did a good job of finding her there.”

Starting things off strong in the opening round Monday, Nov. 20, the Lady Admirals edged past CAK 50-45. KJ McNealy, sophomore wing, led Farragut with 14 points, followed by Neubert with 12. Junior guard Annie Priest added eight points, with six each coming from Lilly Mullins and Mya Johnston.

Karlie Whited, Maddie Braden and Colie Thompson led the Lady Warriors with 12 points each.

In the semifinal round Friday, Nov. 24, the Lady Admirals bounced Johnson City Science Hill 51-38, led again by McNealy, this time scoring a game-high 16. Neubert was close, adding 15, while Priest scored seven.

“I felt like our effort in those two (winning) games was better than it was tonight, especially how we finished” versus Gatlinburg-Pittman, Mayfield said.