BY JESSE SMITHEY
Coaches threw just about every defensive look they could conjure up at Natalya Hodge during the 2024-25 season.
Not much seemed to work, though.
Box-and-1s and zones. Quick defenders and long defenders.
Didn’t matter, really.
The Bearden High School junior met the challenges head on and earned her first 5Star Preps Girls Player of the Year award for her efforts in the 2024-25 season. The now two-time Class 4A Miss Basketball finalist scored 25.7 points per game as a junior and topped the 2,000-career-point plateau while helping Bearden win 33 games and reach the state semifinals.
The high-profile Division I prospect also averaged 3.7 steals, 3.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game.
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“For us, to be successful, she was such a big piece offensively,” Bearden coach Justin Underwood said. “Just making strides in her game and becoming more consistent at all three levels, I think shows her being able to find a way to be a consistent scorer regardless of defenses and opponents.
“Coaches put a lot of thought and intelligent game plans together,” Underwood added. “I just think she has a bulldog mentality of: ‘OK. I’m going to find a way.'”
Bearden rolled through District 4-4A play and then captured the district tournament title. After a slight slip-up in the region title game with a loss at Oak Ridge, Hodge and Bearden rallied to win in the Class 4A sectionals at Morristown East.
At state, they cruised past Whitehaven in the quarterfinals.
But in the state semifinals, Bearden faced two-time defending champion Bradley Central, a nationally ranked program out of Cleveland, Tenn., that was full of next-level talents.
The Lady Bulldogs took a 23-21 lead into halftime, as Hodge torched BC for 16 first-half points. She sank 3s from all over. She beat her defenders to the basket for tough scores.
But in the second half, Bradley Central deployed its vaunted smothering defense and it all but muted Bearden’s efforts in the semifinal showdown.
Still, the game was an isolated look at just how special Hodge can be — but also where she’ll derive motivation and growth for her final season of prep basketball.
“For 16 minutes, you can be really, really good. Even great. But a game is 32 minutes. And so I think that you can work so hard and be prepared and sometimes it goes your way. But I think the drive she will take (from that loss),” Underwood said. “We’ve already had some conversations since that about “where does this put your mindset?”
“She has two goals next year. She wants to win a state title and win Miss Basketball, and she even said it in that order. It’s like anything, when you win, it’s great and you go back to the drawing board. But when you lose, it stings a little bit more. I think you could see that with Natalya. She was pleased with a great year, but she wasn’t satisfied. It gives definitely some motivation for her senior year.”
Motivation has never been a need for Hodge.
She loves the work, the training.
But now she’s growing in basketball knowledge and leadership, something on which she looks back fondly from the 2024-25 campaign.
“Reading the floor, that’s what I was really satisfied with. Reading the floor and also being a leader,” she said. “When times got hard and when we had to face adversity, just never giving up and keep going.”
Bearden loses three starters from its 2025 semifinal run. So Hodge’s leadership next season will be key.
“There will be challenges,” she said. “But I’m ready for this.”
No doubt, she will be.
“Work ethic has never been an issue. I think she’s learning how to try and pull others along with her,” Underwood said. “She’s in love with it. She’s absolutely a throwback in that she’s pretty much obsessed with the game — and getting better.”