Bulldogs retain perfect record
Knoxville — Despite watching his team notch an apparent lopsided win to open District 4-4A play, Bearden High School boys basketball coach Jeremy Parrott made it perfectly clear.
The Bulldogs can play better and Parrott didn’t sound like a coach whose team kept its perfect record intact.
“I don’t know what to think about them sometimes,” Parrott said of the Bulldogs after they toppled Oak Ridge, 81-55, Friday night before a spirited house in West Knoxville. “I just think we can play much better, and I’m not talking about the score, I’m just talking about the little things that we can do better.”
Bearden (8-0 overall, 1-0 in the district) was able to avenge last year’s season-ending loss to the Wildcats in the Region 2-4A Tournament semifinals, but it fell behind early and found itself trailing, 12-9 midway through the first quarter.
But the Bulldogs couldn’t be kept down for long as they closed the inaugural frame on a 15-6 run to open a 24-16 advantage by quarter’s end. From there, they would never trail again in the first-ever meeting between the two teams as district opponents.
“I don’t ever remember us playing them in December,” Parrott said. “We’ve played in the region tournament and it seems like we’ve always ended each other’s season and I’ve been here, this is my 10th year.”
After the somewhat slow start, the Bulldogs kicked their defense in high gear and Bearden forced the young Wildcats squad in to 20 turnovers and Bearden converted those Wildcats’ miscues into points.
“We have a lot of inexperience. We lost four starters,” Oak Ridge coach Aaron Green said. “But the bottom line is you have to take care of the ball and you can’t turn it over against a team like that.
“We’re a young team and they’re all good kids and as long as we continue to play hard, they’ll continue to get better.”
The Bulldogs continued to build upon their advantage throughout the contest. They extended their lead to 46-32 by halftime before all but putting the contest away with a 19-6 run in the third stanza.
Bearden, which defeated geographic and one-time district rival Knoxville West, 76-25, to open the week at home on Tuesday, Dec. 2, had four players post double figures in the scoring column against the Wildcats.
Justin Nordin and Carson Asbaty, a transfer from Knoxville Catholic, scored 18 points each, while Sean Capshaw added 13 despite being saddled with foul trouble throughout the night. Damian Collum finished with 12 points.
Ethan James scored 17 points to lead the Wildcats (2-3, 0-1), while Charlie Taubenheim, Oak Ridge’s lone returning starter had 16 points.
Bearden will have to play the Wildcats at least one more time (and perhaps three more times) and Parrott knows that Oak Ridge will be a different team when the two squads collide later this season at Wildcat Arena.
“That’s a good team and a tradition-rich program over there,” Parrott said. “They’re figuring it all out, and rest assured, they’ll be at or new the top of our district.”
