Lady Horns fall in district semis, await regionals

A spot in the District 1-2A tournament title game was within reach for the Johnson County girls basketball team; if it could've reached more rebounds. The Longhorns lost 39-35 to Unicoi County in a district semifinal on Saturday at West Ridge. The Blue Devils' 18 offensive rebounds were the primary reason they prevailed. Unicoi County had denied Johnson County a Three Rivers Conference title when it went to Mountain City and won 55-34 on Feb. 9, salvaging a regular season split. Brooklynn Sparks scored 26 points for the Blue Devils and fellow guard Abigail Vidrio had 13 points, five steals and four assists in that one. Vidrio and Sparks scored 11 and 10, respectively, on Saturday. Johnson County coach Mark McClain would've liked his team's chances had he known that beforehand. "After what Sparks did to us at Johnson County, I was tickled with that," McClain said. "I thought we did a pretty good job on her and Vidrio. But we just gave up way too many second chances. "They rebounded well on the offensive end and the defensive end. We just didn't do a good job keeping them off the offensive boards. They got a lot of second shots." Johnson County sophomore Audrey Shaw scored a game-high 12 points. The Longhorns weren't able to get the up-tempo pace McClain had hoped to. "They slowed it down a little bit and we had a tough time scoring," McClain said. "It was pretty tight most of the game." Unicoi County opened the second half on an 8-0 run to take a 10-point lead. "And then from that point, I think, we cut it to three late and had the ball – a couple of possessions, I believe," McClain said. "And we got really good shots, but we didn't make 'em." McClain wondered if the Blue Devils would run a box-and-one some to hassle Shaw, or a triangle-and-two with Shaw and Mackenzie McClain in mind. Each averages double-digit scoring. "They played that little 2-3 zone, and one time they did go to a 3-2 and put the big girl up front," McClain said. "It wasn't really an offensive showcase. There was a lot of defense being played. We just couldn't get the clutch bucket we needed there at the end." Johnson County (10-14) was to take on Chuckey-Doak (7-22) in the third-place game at 6 p.m. on Monday at West Ridge. The loser will almost certainly have to visit powerful Gatlinburg-Pittman in the first round of the region tournament. The winner will likely face Pigeon Forge, which is a tough task, too. A win against Unicoi on Saturday would've made for a favorable first round region date in Mountain City. But McClain said his team must turn the page. Chuckey-Doak put up a fight against top-seeded South Greene on Saturday. "Over the last month, I feel like Chuckey-Doak is the most improved team in the conference," McClain said. "They took South Greene to the wire the last game of the regular season. They played them really tough in the first half yesterday. "They're likely to get in a pace that we like. It'll depend on how we shoot, how we play, but it's one we need to get."