Bearden’s furious rally ends in heartbreak
She could have added another word — “shots” — as Bearden trailed Bartlett 60-48 at that point, looking very unlike a team that carried 32 wins into the TSSAA Class 4A State Quarterfinals.
The Lady Bulldogs soon found their form, constructing a dizzying 14-point comeback capped by a game-tying 3-pointer from Natalya Hodge to knot the score at 68.
Unfortunately for the Lady Bulldogs (32-4), that was as close as they came in a 77-73 loss to end their 2026 season.
Hodge, a Missouri signee, led Bearden with 31 points — 18 in the fourth quarter alone — to cap a career that saw more than 3,000 points scored with three straight years as a Miss Basketball finalist.
“She’s rewritten the record books,” Bearden coach Justin Underwood said. “In today’s society, it’s sometimes tough to put yourself out there, that you have high goals. For her to believe in herself and put the work in to get there, it’s a huge deal. She’s got the dog in her, and we’ve been able to ride that.”
He added a similar sentiment of Rainey, a Carson-Newman soccer signee who battled through two ACL surgeries and scored 11 points in her final Bearden outing.
Those two and their senior teammates — Katie Foster and Theola Mills — led a Bearden team that reached the state tournament three times in the last four years.
All four grew under players such as Avery Treadwell, who led the 2022 Lady Bulldogs to a state title the year before this senior class arrived as freshmen.
They entered this state tourney intent on a different result than last year, a semifinal loss to Bradley Central.
Bartlett, to its credit, quieted that thought in a hurry.
The Lady Panthers took a 34-28 lead into halftime, as Bearden endured a three-minute, 27-second scoring drought in the second quarter.
“They’re a very good team,” Underwood said. “I think we limited ourselves in the first half. We talked about pace, and I think we were a little slow to react and communicate, things we normally do.”
That set the tone for a 13-1 Bartlett run in the third frame, and they led 56-43 entering the fourth and final quarter.
To that point, hardly anything had gone Bearden’s way.
But in the end, Underwood summed up his team best: “They were going to go down swinging.”
From that point on, the Lady Bulldogs outscored the Lady Panthers 25-12 to tie the score at 68.
A late Bearden turnover and two missed free throws proved costly, as did Bartlett’s 13-for-15 clip at the charity stripe.
Conversely, BHS went just 12-for-27 in free throws.
That disparity, along with a combined 52 points from Panthers Amare Booth, Faye Williams and Anniya Bailey, proved the ultimate undoing for Bearden.
And so, six minutes and 46 seconds after urging on her teammates, Rainey joined her teammates in an emotional walk off the floor.
Moments later, she was able to reflect on just how much her team accomplished.
“We’ve done so much that people never thought we would be able to do,” she said. “It’s amazing what the Lord has allowed us to do, and I’m super thankful for that.”
“I know a lot of people doubted us and threw stuff against us because of the name across our chest,” added Hodge. “But I think we proved a lot of people wrong the past four years. I would never ask for another group of girls.”
