The first quarter of Tuesday's third place game in the District 4-AAA tournament started and ended as poorly as one can for the Lenoir City Panthers, propelling them to a 68-56 loss.

Senior Jordan Hall was able to gain control of the opening tip right under the Farragut basket but missed an easy layup.

To end the quarter, Lenoir City gave up an uncontested layup to the Admirals in the half court only to throw the ensuing in bounds pass directly to Farragut's Brian Park, who nailed a quick mid-range jumper at the buzzer to gain an 18-10 lead for his team.

"I think it started from the opening tip, missing the first layup of the game," Lenoir City coach Brandon Kirkland said of his teams lackadaisical play. "It seemed like we never got any better. We had no energy. It seemed like we didn’t want to be here for whatever reason. I don't know, I don't."

Farragut would maintain a lead of 10 or more points for nearly the entirety of the game as Lenoir City never really threatened beyond the first few minutes of play.

The Panthers shot 31.25 percent from the field, 13.8 percent from three and 67 percent on free throws. Farragut hit nearly every free throw they took, knocking down 27 of 28 attempts.

Lenoir City will travel to the winner of Tuesday’s meeting between Powell and Oak Ridge, which was played after the News-Herald presstime, Saturday for the opening game of the Region 2-AAA tournament. Kirkland said he is undecided on how the team will spend its practices leading up to the game.

"We tried resting this weekend and went with a light practice yesterday, and that got our tails kicked tonight," he said. "I don't know if that's the right answer or not. We'll do some lighter stuff tomorrow, do some shooting and try to let them rest a little bit, and Thursday and Friday get ready for Powell or Oak Ridge and hopefully get that sense of urgency back that we played with earlier in this tournament."