Horns hoping for late-season run

The homestretch of the basketball season is upon it, and the Johnson County basketball team still has water in its fuel. Of course, should the Longhorns ever hit on all cylinders, they have the horsepower for a productive postseason. It's been a year of transition. Head coach Ethan Harmon is in his first season replacing iconic coach Austin Atwood, and Harmon received two players to add to the rotation in the middle of the season. Even the weather has helped prevent finding a flow. But at this point, Harmon says, anything but hard-fought performances are essentially excuses. "We've just gotta understand having a sense of urgency," Harmon said. The Longhorns didn't appear to understand, Harmon says, with the performance in a 58-41 home loss to Chuckey-Doak on Thursday. It dropped Johnson County to 2-5 in District 1-2A. "We have a hard-working community, a blue collar community that I want our team to be able to represent in the best way possible," Harmon said. "But when we step out there and our product looks the way that it was – lack of intensity, lack of attention to detail, really, just lacking a sense of urgency to try and shake the standings up, especially at home … it's pretty frustrating." The Longhorns were blue collar in one sense against the Chuckey-Doak – they laid a lot of bricks. "We shot 36 percent from two and 20 percent from three," Harmon said. "And anytime you shoot that badly from both points of attack, it's gonna be very hard to win, especially if you don't defend with the intensity you want to defend with. We've gotta rely more on defense, especially in games like that. "And we did have some good looks that we usually hit that just didn't go down. I could sit here and spin it all kinds of certain ways and make it sound however I wanted, but the fact of the matter is we had a district game at home and didn't represent the community the way I'd hoped our team would. And we just weren't very efficient." Landin Lipford led the Longhorns with 18 points against Chuckey-Doak. Carson Jennings added 11. Junior guard Ryland Grindstaff scored 17 points for the Black Knights, which also got a productive outing from post Ben Palazzo. "We just couldn't stay in front of Grindstaff," Harmon said. "And Ben Palazzo has given us a lot of trouble in two games, not only posting us up and scoring, but also from a defensive standpoint. I don't know what it is, but he's pretty intimidating for our guys any time we go in there. "He's got a good frame to him and he's a big body in there, and we get a little flustered. We've played some guys that are just as big if not bigger than him, but for whatever reason, our guys have a very tough time with his presence down there." The 'Horns were to encounter another formidable frontcourt at West Greene on Tuesday. "They've got a really good frontcourt and they've got one guy (guard Elijah Williams) back that didn't play the first time," Harmon said. "And they have some young guards that hurt us last time. So, we've gotta be good, really, one through five. We don't have a choice with them." Johnson County is scheduled to host South Greene on Friday. Last week's scheduled game against Unicoi County has been rescheduled for Feb. 9 in Mountain City. A visit to Cloudland scheduled for Monday (Feb. 2) has been postponed and isn't likely to be rescheduled, as is the case with a postponed game against Elizabethton from earlier this month. Harmon is still cautiously optimistic his 'Horns can find a groove in time for the league tournament. "Getting all the firepower on the same page," he said, "is really where we've got to get to."