Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Senior night tugs at heartstrings of Coach Johnson
FARMINGTON — Senior night always tugs at the heart strings of Farmington coach Brad Johnson.
But when an opponent just knocked off another league team by 29 there could be second thoughts, especially when Shiloh Christian would have liked nothing better than spoiling the Lady Cardinals’ unbeaten conference record.
Johnson, however, doesn’t center his game plan around fears of an opponent’s capabilities; he prefers to operate in faith and a steadfast confidence in the players on his talent-laden roster.
Jenna Lawrence finished out her career at Cardinal Arena by scoring 30 points on senior night to lead Farmington (27-1, 13-0) past Shiloh Christian, 70-34, in 4A-1 girls basketball action on Tuesday, Feb. 7.
The victory gave the Lady Cardinals a sweep of the season series with Shiloh Christian and moved them one step closer to running the table in the 4A-1 Conference with one game left in the regular season. The Lady Saints came in fresh off a 6839 thrashing of Huntsville on Feb. 3, and grabbed a 9-8 lead on Avery Beers’ 3-pointer late in the first quarter.
Farmington responded by inbounding the ball and catching Shiloh in transition. J’Myra London was fouled going up for a layup six seconds after Beers’ 3-point field goal. Her free throws switched the lead back to the Lady Cardinals and began a 12-0 run.
Johnson began the game with Lawrence and seniors Payton Denham, Lindsey Scogin, Kamryn Uher and Zana Vanlandingham, providing each girl the honor of starting and a chance to log some minutes on the hardwood.
“The first thing, I’m so proud of those kids. When you have five senior players, two senior managers, and across the board they’ve been such an integral part of building this program and continuing the standard. The legacy that those kids have left, not just with their play on Tuesday and Friday night, but what they do every single day in practice and the kids they are in the locker room and in the hallways. The impact they’ve made on this community is unbelievable,” Johnson said.
When Johnson inserted starters J’Myra London, Reese Shirey, Zoey Bershers and Hannah Moss, it took them about three-and-a-half minutes to get into the flow, but once they found their groove, Shiloh had no answer.
“Our pressure picked up at the end of the first quarter and we were able to create some turnovers and convert those turnovers into points, then the pace continued to pick up throughout the course of the game,” Johnson said.
In a lightning fast sequence Farmington went from trailing 9-8 with 1:27 left in the first quarter to seizing a 21-9 lead.
Six seconds after Beers’ 3-point basket pushed Shiloh ahead, London was fouled going up for a layup and made both free throws. London swiped the ball and passed to Lawrence to an easy bucket, then took a steal in for a layup. Farmington scored six points in less than 25 seconds with London adding two more foul shots after another steal.
“You got to give Shiloh credit. They came out and went toe to toe with us for a pretty significant amount of time, especially in the early part of the game, but our kids really locked in defensively and they stayed locked in even when the next substitution rotation came in. I felt like there was just no drop off in the level of intensity on defense. Our rotations were really good, we shared the ball well and it was just a fun, fun night. I think when we play that way, we’re a really good basketball team,” Johnson said.
On multiple occasions after Shiloh Christian knocked down a 3-pointer while they were congratulating themselves, the Lady Cardinals zoomed past them and either made a layup or drew a foul at the other end within seconds.
“I’ve bragged on these kids all year with their defensive effort and I think it was just another example of the same thing, just the kids playing really, really hard, and defending. Each unit creating turnovers and getting points off those turnovers,” Johnson said.