Lady Horns still control district hopes after tough week

As frustrating as it was to lose a hard-fought battle for first place at South Greene on Tuesday and make matters worse by playing uninspired in a loss at Happy Valley three days later, things could be much worse for the Johnson County girls basketball team. The Longhorns fell to 4-2 in District 1-2A, but South Greene also appeared to be flat after its barnburner with Johnson County and fell to 5-1 in the league with a lopsided loss to Unicoi County. Consequently, with four district games remaining, Johnson County still controls its own destiny. "We've still kind of got everything in our hands," Longhorns coach Mark McClain said. The South Greene loss was tough to digest. The Longhorns trailed by three points with less than two minutes remaining when Johnson County guard Mackenzie McClain got a steal and drove into a collision. Two officials blew their whistles and went toward the scorer's table. It didn't end well for Johnson County. "I've never seen both refs go to the table and make opposite calls, and then go back and have to talk about it," Coach McClain said. "The first one called a block on them, and the other one called a charge on Kenzie." After conferring, the officials opted for a charge on McClain, which led to a technical on Coach McClain. "The reason I got kind of upset was that was a big call," McClain said. "We had started coming back a little bit, and I thought South Greene was struggling with some pressure. And that just kind of – to me, it kind of ended the threat. They got two shots and the ball, and it kind of took the wind out of us. "Of course, I think it was a foul on them, and I'm sure Coach (Stephen) Gregg would say it was a foul on us. But like I told the girls, that's not the reason we lost. There were lots of other reasons." Johnson County continued to fight. A steal and lay-in from Audrey Shaw got the 'Horns within 57-54 with 17 seconds left, and the Longhorns got a turnover with 13 seconds to go. But South Greene intercepted the inbounds pass and made 1 of 2 free throws to seal it. Shaw scored 14 of her team-high 17 points in the fourth quarter. McClain and Ella Icenhour added 15 and 11, respectively. "We didn't do a great job taking care of the ball against South Greene," Coach McClain said. "I wasn't disappointed in our effort." His disappointment, it turns out, came Friday. Happy Valley was 0-5 in the district before taking the court against the Longhorns and recording a 61-46 upset. "I don't know if there was such a big buildup for that first-place game that both teams kind of lost their focus, juice. But we didn't play well," Coach McClain said. Amila Riddick spearheaded the Warriors' upset with 22 points. "They had one or two kids that didn't play against us last time," McClain said. "They're about to get everybody healthy. They just outplayed us, outhustled us, outcoached us – a little bit of everything. "We struggled to score a little bit there in the third quarter. I think we cut it to three at one point, but just couldn't get over the hump. Happy Valley had a lot to do with that. I've always thought Rik (Anderson) does a good job." McClain led Johnson County with 17 points. Shaw added 16. The Longhorns were scheduled to play Unaka on Monday (Jan. 26), but that was postponed until Saturday. Johnson Count's return to district play hosting Unicoi County on Tuesday was postponed until Feb. 9. The Friday home game versus Chuckey-Doak is still on the schedule. The Longhorns won 76-70 at Unicoi County on Dec. 12. They jumped out to a 30-12 lead and held on.