Boys Basketball: Hillcrest falls to Farragut

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Updated: February 25, 2012 8:12AM

As a defensive presence alone, Farragut’s Rashaun Stimage doesn’t have too many quiet quarters.

Sunday, however, at the Whitney Young Shootout, the 6-foot-7 senior forward was scoreless for much of the fourth quarter as the Admirals tried to pull out a win against Hillcrest.

The points weren’t there, but his defense never deserted him. Stimage had two huge steals in the final minute to help preserve a 59-53 Farragut win.

“I love playing defense,” Stimage said. “Before I could score offensively, I was a defensive player. I always love to block shots, get dirty. (In the fourth), I just put my hands up, and I’m glad I got the ball.”

Stimage finished with 16 points, 13 blocks and 12 rebounds for Farragut (9-7), with Lavell Boyd (17 points) and Deonta Terrell (15) also contributing. Javon Mooring’s 18 points and Jalen Loving’s 12 points led Hillcrest (15-4).

The Admirals clamped down defensively in the second half after allowing Hillcrest to shoot 12-of-25 in the first half. While the Hawks struggled to convert, Farragut took the lead for good on back-to-back Boyd layups at 52-49.

“We wanted to settle down defensively,” Stimage said. “We were letting guys go right past us so we said ‘Let’s settle down and ‘D’ up.’ ”

Farragut upped the lead to 54-50 on two Boyd free throws.

Fouled on a three-point attempt, Mooring drilled all three attempts. After Terrell answered with two free throws for Farragut, Stimage made the first of his two late steals to help preserve the lead.

Farragut hit 5-of-6 free throws in the final 60 seconds.

Hillcrest shot 7-of-27 from the floor in the second half and made only two fourth-quarter buckets, three-pointers by Mooring and Virgil Fleming.

“We’ve been stressing a lot executing in the clutch,” Hillcrest coach Don Houston said. “We work on it, but we need to work on it even more. You just have to do a better job executing.”

Von Steuben 61, Rich Central 44: Arinze Okeke (17 points), Jalen Delaney (11) and Devin Moore (10) led Von Steuben. Jamaal Murray and Michael Kirk had nine apiece for Rich Central.