Admirals rally, survive OT to claim championship
Knoxville — Farragut Middle School’s boys basketball team had to work a little overtime Thursday night. The extra labor netted the Admirals a Knox County Middle School Class AAA Tournament Championship.
Farragut had to come from behind to notch a 42-39 overtime victory over Halls before a spirited crowd at South-Doyle Middle School.
“There were a couple of times tonight that I thought we were done,” Admirals’ coach Shane Wells said. “But our kids came back and that shows a lot about their character.
“We’ve been in a lot of close games and we’ve won almost every one of them. We were extremely fortunate to win tonight and we’ve been extremely fortunate all season.”
The Red Devils, thanks to a shot from Cruze Yaniello as time expired in the third frame, held a slim 31-29 advantage heading into the final six minutes of regulation. Halls also had a lead in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter until Farragut’s Henry Crecy buried a 3-pointer as time expired in the fourth quarter, knotting the contest, 36-36, and sending the game into overtime
The Admirals, who had seemingly been embroiled in an uphill battle all night, wasted little time seizing control of things in the extra three-minute frame.
Farragut scored first in overtime as Crecy grabbed an offensive rebound and scored, making it 38-36. The Ads were dominant on the offensive glass early in overtime as Benji Evans scored another putback a short time later, giving his team a four-point lead.
Harrison Holmes added a pair of foul shots down the stretch for FMS.
The Red Devils scored their only points of overtime when Yaniello buried a long-range jumper with 15.4 seconds to play, making the score 41-39.
Crecy led all scorers in the contest as he finished with 19 points.
Lady Wolves nab another county title
For the sixth time in eight years, West Valley Middle School is a Knox County Tournament Champion.
The Lady Wolves, the defending Class AAA State Champions, won their latest county tournament title with a 53-43 victory over Hardin Valley Middle Thursday in South Knoxville.
Since the school opened in 1999, West Valley has been a middle school power in Knoxville.
Three coaches, including Tim Goddard, Alex Comer and current head coach Josh Ballard (formerly at Cedar Bluff Middle) have guided the Lady Wolves to Knox County Tournament Titles.
“West Valley is a well-established program. It was a good program before I got here,” Ballard said.
“It’s a good program with me here and it will be a good program after I leave.”
“We have great kids, we have great parents, and the one person who doesn’t get enough credit is my assistant coach, Scott Wilson. He’s been with me for nine years.”
Ballard noted that the major key to his team’s recent success is his players.
West Valley’a playyers have exhibited the willingness to play unselfishly. And many of his past players who played at Bearden High after their middle school careers ended, have gone on to play different sports in college.
Avery Treadwell is now playing basketball at Florida State and Brinley Murphy is playing soccer in the SEC at Florida, after beginning her collegiate career at South Carolina.
“We’ve had Avery Treadwell, who is playing basketball at Florida State, and we had Brinley Murphy, who was the top (high school) soccer player in the state,” Ballard said. “And this year, our girls have had to make sacrifices.
“(Against Hardin Valley), I had a girl, Reece Davis, who came in off the bench and hit big shots in the second quarter.”
Davis scored all seven of her points in the second stanza, helping the Lady Wolves open a 25-18 lead by halftime.
The Lady Wolves also share the ball well.
Reese Underwood led West Valley’s balanced scoring attack in the county championship game as she finished with 12 points, while Emery Cooper, a three-year starter added 11 points. Davis and Janiya Turner finished with seven points each.
The contest wasn’t without its bright spots for the Lady Hawks as Reese Galloway scored a game-high 23 points.
