Friday, Jan. 14, 2011
9:17 PM
By John Solymossy
YourSeason.com
The No. 13 Farragut basketball team had the daunting task of facing No. 4 ranked Young on the road without its star center Rashaun Stimage. Stimage is out with a broken hand, however, the undersized Admirals rallied together to pull off an impressive 51-49, Red-West win against the Dolphins Tuesday night.
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All the wins in this division are big, Farragut coach William Nelson said. With our big guy out, we had to make some adjustments and we got a big win against a good team tonight.
Senior forward DJ Tolliver led the Admirals (13-2, 5-2) with 21 points.
Tolliver has really stepped up, Nelson said. He has played up to my expectations and that is why he is my captain.
Farragut trailed at halftime, 29-27, but overcame the deficit by picking the intensity on the defensive end and were able to force several Young turnovers. The Admirals led 39-36 after three quarters.
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Defense wins games and our coach told us to focus on that and it paid off with a win, said Tolliver.
Both teams traded scoring runs in the fourth quarter and Young led late 49-48 with just under a minute to play. However, Farragut senior guard Jonathan Collins sank a 10-foot jumper from the lane to put the Admirals ahead for good.
It is a great feeling, Jonathan Collins said. I was missing some of my shots earlier, but my teammates kept on me and I was able to make the shot at the end.
Young squandered a last-second inbound play as Luke Hager missed a three from the right corner with time expiring. The Dolphins (10-4, 5-1) were led in scoring Sam Thompson, who scored 11 points.
We got outplayed and outcoached tonight and the better team won tonight, said Young coach Tyrone Slaughter.