K.J. McNealy and the Farragut girls’ basketball team got the new year started the right way Friday night.

The 6-foot junior guard had 19 points and 10 rebounds as the Lady Admirals posted a 65-37 victory over visiting Karns in a non-district game.

“We haven’t gone full throttle with anything yet (this season),” McNealy said, “so I think we were like, ‘OK, we need to start getting in the groove after Christmas and in the New Year.’ We needed to get a good win, and I think we just came out playing really hard.”

McNealy, averaging about 13 points and nine rebounds, has offers from South Florida, Belmont, Radford, Tennessee Tech and West Georgia.

“A lot of times (McNealy’s) the best player on the court,” Farragut coach Jason Mayfield said. “We’ve challenged ourselves with a really tough schedule to not only see how good we can be, but to see how good she can be.”

Farragut (11-5) won its third straight game since a 46-37 loss to Sevier County on Dec. 21. The Lady Admirals’ other losses are to Pickett County, Cookeville, McMinn Central and The King’s Academy.

Pickett County won the Class A state championship last season and McMinn Central reached the Class 2A state quarterfinals.

Farragut plays at McMinn Central on Tuesday and begins District 4-4A play next Friday (Jan. 10) against visiting William Blount.

“Pickett County’s a good team,” Mayfield said. “We should have competed with them a little bit better (in a 59-36 loss). That one honestly was my fault on the game plan, but we’ve had some close games.

“I want to make sure we know what we’ve got going into our district play. We go to McMinn Central on Tuesday and it’s another tough game and one we want to get.”

McNealy was 7 of 11 from the field against Karns, including 1 of 3 from 3-point range, and made 4 of 5 free throws.

“There are some great nights (for McNealy) and there are some nights when she knows she’s got work to do, but she’s got the potential,” Mayfield said. “She’s got the tools. It’s just a matter of putting it all together at one time.”

Gabbie Vanacker, a 5-11 sophomore wing, added 14 points for Farragut and senior guard Jaci Neubert and sophomore post Trinity Curry scored 11 points each.

Vanacker was 6 of 6 from the field, including 2 of 2 from 3-point range.

Curry was 5 of 6 from the field and made her only free throw.

Farragut made 25 of 37 two-point shots (67.6 percent) and 3 of 18 shots from 3-point range (16.7 percent).

“A lot of times we rely on 3-point shooting too much,” Mayfield said. “Not that we can’t shoot, but we’ve got to be able to use Trinity inside. We kind of finally figured that out and did a better job.

“With limited practices over the last couple of weeks, it’s kind of hard to work on that stuff, but we’re trying to use all the tools that we have, and Trinity’s a big piece of that.”

The Lady Admirals made 19 layups – many coming on the fast break – and scored six points on three putbacks.

Karns (6-9) committed 16 turnovers.

“It starts defensively, like every coach will tell you,” Mayfield said. “We feel like we can pressure some people and get out and get rebounds and get some (fast) breaks, and we did a pretty good job of that. I’m a little frustrated we allowed too many open shots in the first half. We’ve got to fix that.”

Senior guard Rylee Roberts led Karns’ scoring with 16 points, senior guard Lauren Martin had nine points, and senior guard Reese Roberts scored eight.

The Roberts sisters are twins and Bryan College signees.

Karns took a 5-0 lead Friday as Farragut missed its first seven shots, including five from 3-point range.

The Lady Admirals finished the first quarter with a 17-2 run.

Vanacker’s 3-pointer with 5 seconds left in the first quarter made it 17-7.

“It took us a second, but eventually we got there,” McNealy said.

Farragut led by 19 late in the second quarter and was up by 35 in the fourth quarter.

The Lady Admirals’ backups played the last 5 minutes, 20 seconds of the game.

“We have a lot of people who can play,” McNealy said. “It’s not just the first five.”

Article written by Dave Link/5Star Preps To read more on area high school sports or to see photo galleries, videos, stat leaders, etc… visit 5StarPreps.com — and use promo code New2024 for 30% off your first year or month subscription.