Historic season ends in state quarterfinals
Exactly 90 minutes later, he was the first player to hug FHS coach J.P. Burris after a 76-58 loss to Walker Valley in the Class 4A state quarterfinals on Thursday, March 19.
The result halted Farragut’s historic run, closing a memorable chapter for a senior class that came together under the close watch of their fourth-year head coach.
“Man, I just told them how proud I am of them,” Burris said. “How much I love them, how much they have meant to me. These guys have been with me since my first year, and they know the stuff I’m talking about beyond basketball. Their sophomore year, it did not go well. In a time when a lot of kids would have left, they didn’t. It’s a credit to them that we made it to this point, because they never wavered.”
As Thursday morning gave way to afternoon, that sentiment carried over to the floor.
Walker Valley opened with a 5-0 run, extending that lead to 13-6 midway through the first quarter.
The Admirals responded with a push of their own, eventually tying the score 20-20 on a Lanning free throw.
The Mustangs galloped back out to a nine-point lead, 34-25, with a 14-5 run to close the first half.
Yet, here came Farragut again out of halftime, compiling runs of 5-0 and 11-4 to trim the deficit to three, 52-49, with 23 seconds left in the third quarter.
Unfortunately for the Ads, WVHS answered once again to outscore the Admirals 24-6 from that point forward.
Burris was whistled for a technical during the frame, drawing the ire of a nearby official after questioning what he thought should have been a flop warning.
“I was just yelling, ‘How is that not a flop warning,’ and the other official T’d me up,” Burris said. “When I asked him, he said, “You’ve already had a warning, and you can’t yell at the official.’
“I didn’t cuss at anybody, didn’t say anything I felt was inappropriate,” he continued. “That was frustrating, but I have to do a better job of handling my emotion. Through the course of my career, I feel like I’ve earned some technicals more than that one. It is what it is. This is my first time here as a coach, and I have to learn.”
Still, Burris credited his players’ ability to handle adversity — first to shake off nerves in the first quarter, then to punch back when Walker Valley first tried to take control.
“Our guys have weathered the storm all year, and these five seniors do a good job of that,” he said. “And we did — we came back. But Walker Valley was so persistent on the glass and they shot it well. I think that stuff just caught up to us.”
“It’s a testament to us,” senior Britton Lewis added. “We’ve battled back all year long. Even when we play great teams, we don’t give up.”
That remained true even in the closing seconds, as Farragut’s Blue Sagle tallied a free throw with 0.2 remaining on the clock.
By that time, though, Walker Valley had done enough damage to pull away.
Guard Zach Davis led all scorers with 21 points on 8-for-12 shooting while Isaac Sausville and Ashton Davis supplemented 15 and 12 points, respectively.
As a team, the Mustangs finished 54% from the floor and 38% from 3-point range — a contrast to Farragut’s 23-for-51 clip from the floor with a 34% rate beyond the arc.
Those proved enough to overcome a Farragut team that saw 13 points from Lanning and 12 from Lewis. Aidan Foshie added nine points on three triples, while Lane and Matthew Dickens scored eight apiece with four from Reid Vining.
“We’ve always had this goal in mind,” Lane said, “and we knew we could do it.”
