McNealy magic: Lady Ads beat HVA in 2OT thriller
HARDIN VALLEY — According to K.J. McNealy’s father, the Farragut senior plays best when she’s mad.
McNealy had good reason to be frustrated on Tuesday, Jan. 20, as the Lady Admirals trailed Hardin Valley by 11 in the second half just a few days after a blowout loss to rival Bearden.
So McNealy promptly took that chip off her shoulder and channeled it into her game, scoring 21 points in the second half and overtime in a thrilling 50-47 win.
The Grand Canyon signee finished the night with 29 points in total — just four shy of her career-high of 33 — including a pair of clutch 3-pointers to force the first and second overtimes.
“I missed the free throws, so I knew I had to make up for it in some way,” McNealy said with a smile. “I know they all trust me to shoot, and Trinity (Curry) set some great screens to get me open.”
Reagan Sheridan added 14 points for the Lady Admirals while Audrey Riehn and Holly Lindsey scored 15 and 14 points, respectively for the Lady Hawks.
“That’s what we need from Reagan every night,” Farragut girls coach Jason Mayfield said. “She was really good at attacking and can shoot the ball too. Her attacking the rim and slashing is really big for us and she did a good job of it.”
McNealy opened the game with back-to-back 3-pointers, but Hardin Valley responded with a 13-1 run before carrying a 21-13 lead into halftime.
FHS came out firing in the third quarter, as a Jayna Carbaugh triple got the team rolling. From there they whittled the home squad’s lead to four at the end of the third quarter, then tied the score in the fourth before McNealy hit a triple at the seven-second mark to tie the score at 37 and force OT.
She hit another with 10 seconds left in the first overtime, forcing yet another extra period before Farragut emerged with the win.
“It shouldn’t have been that close in the first place to be honest, but it shows the depth of our team with the fact that we could battle it out,” McNealy said. “We don’t give up. And with the way the Bearden game went Friday, we wanted to come in and prove something, and I think we did that. To flip the switch and get that out of our minds was big.”
