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The Hollow Rock-Bruceton Lady Tigers found out how hot the fire can get when it visited Huntingdon last Friday night.

The Fillies unlatched themselves from an 11-9 lead an embarked on a 25-7 run to close out the half. In the end, the Huntingdon girls improved to 8-3 overall, 4-0 in the district, with a 65-32 victory.

The Fillies found a little variety in their attack. Instead of their normal double-post offering, they made the Lady Tigers pick their poison. Brooke Pritchard lit up the nets from the perimeter, scoring three triples, two right before the half and was instrumental in leading her Fillies to the victory.

"They were in a triangle-and-two defense and we thought that would leave Ashlee Lockhart and Brooke Pritchard open," said Huntingdon coach Mike Henson. "To get outside shooting, which has been a weakness for us, to get scoring from someone else is big. It's good to get some balance."

Pritchard finished with 15 points and foiled the defense of Bruceton.

"Sometimes that happens when you play a junk defense," said Bruceton coach Dennis Chapman. "Physically they are strong, but we had the game where we wanted it at the end of the first; we didn't handle things too well and we didn't rebound too well."
Once the outside started heating up, the inside opened up for Huntingdon.

Kodia Tharpe joined Crystal Fuller with an inside barrage in the third. Then Ashlee Lockhart connected from the rainbow to give Huntingdon a 31-point advantage.

Kathy Doupis scored a deuce in the third and fourth then buried a three ball late, but the damage had been done.

"We gave a great effort and we've done that all year long," said Chapman. "We don't seem to be able to make plays that get us over the hump."

Henson said the runs in the first half we key.

"We made two good runs at the end of the first two quarters," he said. "We got a win and that was good."

Following Pritchard's 15, Tharpe and Fuller each scored 12. Lockhart had 10.

Waneca Melton scored five, while Sharri Smith, Jessica Carlton and Ashlee Porter scored two each.

Doupis led the Lady Tigers with 14, Whitney Owens scored 10 to lead the Lady Tigers. Hannah Kee and Meagan Sturdivant scored three each. Nikita Washburn added two.
Bruceton falls to 4-5 overall.
 

Mr. Parham called out all the names of the girls on the two squads, beginning with seniors. Kristy McKee was the only senior member of the 1992 squad who was able to be at the recognition service. Neither of the two senior members of the 1993 squad was able to attend, but both, Lee Ann Bell and Becky Crowe sent letters of regret which were read in part to the audience.

Mr. Parham related the sequence of events which led the girls of 1992 to a championship and a Cheerleading Sportsmanship Award. He also recounted the events leading to a runner-up trophy the following year when they lost to Bradford. Parham said, "Everyone has heard of the Nightmare on Elm Street" but the Lady Bulldogs were faced with the nightmare of Michelle Street," who was named the Class A Miss Basketball during her years at Bradford. During the two seasons, the Lady Dawgs won two district titles, a regional title, two sub-states (on the road against Scotts Hill and at home against University of School at Jackson), one state title and one runner-up title.

The "girls" received a warm welcome and retired to the cafeteria for refreshments, including a cake to commemorate their accomplishments.
 

Maryland essentially handed Tennessee its proverbial backside in the worst bowl shellacking in Vol history. The Terps defeated Tennessee handily 30-3 here in the Peach Bowl on New Year's Eve.

There was no confetti in the Vols' locker room. There was no champagne. Just the patchwork of tape and sweat and musings of a lost season, a season of promise and expectation.
Just like that, the season is over.

Thank goodness.

Was Maryland 30-3 better than Tennessee? Probably not. Tennessee shouldn't have been so mediocre.

Let's put this in perspective while sprinkling in grains of honesty here folks. The Peach Bowl - ANY bowl - is a big deal to Maryland. For Tennessee, it's a letdown, even with reset goals. The Vols were seeking warmer climates and settled for the Peach.

Maryland, which hadn't won a bowl game since 1985, is just tickled to go anywhere.

More on that later.

Consider that Maryland won its first bowl game since 1985 - at Tennessee's expense - that it captured the largest Peach Bowl margin of victory since N.C. State walloped West Virginia 49-13 in 1972 - at Tennessee's expense - and that it was the Vols' worst bowl loss in school history. Tennessee certainly broke a lot of new ground...and was essentially buried in it.

The prior worst bowl losses were to Southern Cal (25-0 in the 1944 Rose Bowl), Penn State (42-17 in the 1992 Fiesta, er Fiasco Bowl) and Nebraska (42-17 in the 1998 Orange Bowl).

Maryland was happy to be in the Peach and it showed. For the Vols, it was the pits. It was like waiting too late to get a good prom date and settling for that homely girl. It's fun to go to the dance, but you aren't real proud of how you got there.

When you consider that the Vols had 30 days to prepare for this game and it STILL looked no more organized and no more disciplined than it did against MTSU in September, this was humiliating. It was embarrassing.

Vol coach Phillip Fulmer has this mantra: You either get better or you get worse, you don't stay the same.
Amen, brother.

The Vols, then, have done nothing but spiral down into the cesspool of mediocrity. Against Florida, in September, mind you, the Vols wasted time outs because of an abundance of personnel or said personnel in the wrong places.

While many teams - Vandy, Memphis, Duke, Rutgers, Army come to mind - would love to trade places with UT and endure multiple 8-5 campaigns, this is a substandard season for Tennessee.

UT quarterback Casey Clausen was right when he chastised his receivers: "They have to remember where they are."

They, the UT players, are at Tennessee, a program that expects to be in the hunt for a national title, and they darned well better start acting like it.

* * *

So what's next for the Vols?

For starters, success and failure leaves clues. And there are enough of them littering Neyland Stadium. Let's hope the players and staff can get a clue. After the embarrassing loss to Nebraska in the Orange Bowl (not to be confused with the embarrassing loss to Nebraska in the Fiesta Bowl), Fulmer said that the Vols needed the make a big deal out of being physical.

They were, as those sparkling national title trophies tarnishing on the shelves of the Neyland-Thompson center proves.

Tennessee was physical this year and does have speed. But it was unbridled. It now becomes incumbent on Fulmer to crack the whip a little bit more.

Foolish penalties, misalignments and personnel issues are somewhat excusable during Game 1 or 2, but by Game 14 those issues should be resolved.

They weren't. The Vols were "still trying to get these things corrected," as Fulmer has said repeatedly, until the end.
The Vols were unable to correct those problems.

With the specter of road trips to Auburn, Alabama, Florida and Miami next year, it's a good bet that the Vols are destined to the moped of bowl games again, likely the Peach, Music City or Independence.

* * *

There is a silver lining to the debacle that was 2002. With all the injuries, there are a lot more seasoned players on the roster. Freshmen and sophomores who bargained they'd be in mop-up or special-teams roles were thrust into the breach and earned all-important experience.

That should make an already interesting upcoming spring practice even more fascinating. Players will be pushed for starting roles and playing time. With those injured players returning, presumably healthy, look for Tennessee to be two and three deep at every position, even quarterback.

Tennessee must improve its running game and can't bank on taking a game off looking for help in the receiver corps. Tennessee must be balanced on offense and preparation must start whenever the players return from the holiday break. Ineptitude, such as was on display in Atlanta, is unacceptable.

If the Vols falter next year, with the new athletics director calling the shots, Fulmer might find his seat getting a bit hot. From 1994 to 1999, the Vols lost 11 games in six seasons. From 2000 to 2002, the Vols have lost 12 games. Fulmer also is 6-5 in bowl games.

Sure, Fulmer and crew won it all with an improbable 1998 national title. But in this business of college football, it's not what you've done, it's what you've done lately.

Lately ain't been too good for Fulmer.

* * *

Give Maryland its due. The Terps zapped the Vols with alacrity. They also beat them pretty good.

But many, many Maryland fans lacked grace and manners. Many Vol fans complained of vulgarities and "digital" greetings. Credit the Terp fans for having spirit. They were tailgating in numbers while a few Vols fans were sprinkled here and there doing the same.

Again, the Vols are used to more palatable climates this time of year and we're sort of used to this post-November thing.

Let's face it, Maryland is a novice at it. But that doesn't excuse rude behavior. I experienced as did many others. They made Florida folks look almost civil by comparison. Sort of makes me want to put the Terps on the schedule.

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