CLEVELAND, Tenn. – It wasn’t the prettiest win in Bradley Central’s illustrious girls’ basketball history, but the Bearettes will take it and move on.
With a defense that forced most of Warren County’s 31 turnovers and getting a combined 44 points from freshman Rhyne Howard and sophomore Halle Hughes, Bradley Central defeated the Lady Pioneers, 59-37, Monday night in the Region 3-AAA tournament quarterfinals in front of a small crowd at Jim Smiddy Arena.
“We made it way too hard,” Bradley coach Jason Reuter said.
“We didn’t put this team away like we should have, but won by 22. If you had asked me earlier today if we could win by 22 points, would you take it? Yeah. I’m certainly going take this win and move on.”
The Bearettes (22-5), the District 5-AAA tourney winner, advance to the semifinals on Wednesday at Ooltewah High School and will play White County (27-3) at 7 p.m. in a win-or-go-home showdown pitting top-seeded teams.
White County, the No. 2 seed from District 6-AAA, edged Cleveland, 63-53.
White County ended Bradley Central’s 1993-94 season with an 85-67 victory in the Class AAA sectionals.
Cumberland County, No. 1 in 6-AAA, blasted Soddy-Daisy, 92-45, behind a 35-point effort by Makenzie Iles. She scored 27 points in the first half as the Lady Jets built a stunning 56-19 advantage.
Cookeville, the No. 3 seed out of 6-AAA, eliminated Walker Valley, No. 2 in 5-AAA, by 47-41.
Moving a step closer to its fifth consecutive regional championship, Bradley Central got off to a fast start with a 17-0 run – Hughes had eight points – after the Lady Pioneers (17-18) scored the game’s first point. The Bearettes were up 23-7 after one quarter.
“We probably played one of our worst games all season,” Lady Pioneers coach Shea Panter said. “We had way too many turnovers and a lot of them were unforced when we just threw the ball away. Once you dig a big hole against a team that’s already giving you trouble on offense, it’s hard to dig out.”
Bradley, appearing in its 31st straight region tournament and 57th in the past 58 seasons, had trouble putting the visitors away, but a 12-4 run midway through the final period – Howard and Hughes each scored six points – stretched the lead to 56-29 and Warren County was cooked with 3:45 remaining.
After Julia Gaither’s layup on a Howard assist gave Bradley a 44-28 cushion, Howard made back-to-back three-point plays and Hughes dropped in three straight layups, each one set up by Lady Pioneers turnovers, as the Bearettes secured their fourth straight win and 11th win in the last 12 games.
Howard finished with 22 points and Hughes almost matched her teammate with 20. Both players scored eight points in the fourth quarter when Bradley’s offense showed some life with 19 points. They combined to hit 17-of-34 field goals and Howard grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.
“We’re not happy about how we played,” Hughes said. “We came out aggressive with so much adrenaline that we were too pumped up. We were bricking stuff and shooting crazy shots.”
The Bearettes beat Warren County, 77-33, in the 2012 regional quarterfinals and Monday was the first meeting between the two teams since then.
Bradley Central, which spotted Warren County the game’s first point – an Elsa Eckenrod free throw – and then ran off 17 straight points and 23 of the next 29 to take control of the game. The Lady Pioneers committed nine turnovers during the Bearettes’ scoring spree and made 11 before the opening quarter ended.
The Bearettes committed only four turnovers in the game.
The Lady Pioneers (17-18) scored one point and made four more turnovers in the first four minutes of the second period. Bradley made 12-of-35 shots (34 percent) in the opening half, but lost two points off 16-point, first-quarter lead.
“Even though we played pretty bad,” said Howard, who scored 65 points in two district tournament games, “we still played good defense. The outside shooting (the Bearettes were 0-for-8 behind the 3-point line) didn’t bother us too much. We were still getting to the basket.”
Bradley Central wound up shooting 49 percent from the field by making 22-of-45 shots
With seven additional turnovers in the third period, the Bearettes were able to score five of the last seven points – three by Howard – and maintained their 14-point spread.
Hughes scored on a driving left-handed scoop shot and Julia Gaither scored a layup on a Howard assist and the Bearettes had a 44-28 lead.
Howard hit the Lady Pioneers with two three-point plays 64 seconds apart and the lead ballooned to 50-32 with 4:43 left in the game.
The Lady Pioneers’ poor ball-handling enabled Bradley Central to sledgehammer them into submission with a ground-hog sequence of three successive Hughes layups – in a span of 51 seconds – off Warren County miscues.
“Our defense can create offense,” said Hughes, the team’s leading scorer with a 17.2-point average. “We work on defense double what we do on offense in practice. We try to cause turnovers with our press and then get into a run-and-gun offense.”
“Those layups ended the game,” Reuter said. “Our speed took over and the combination of Howard and Hughes took over the game. That was the knockout punch. We should have reached that point earlier, but we shot so poorly in the first half.
“We had a grand opportunity to save our legs a little, but these kids are young. We’ve got one day to get ready for White County.”
Brittany Myers and Eckenrod, a sophomore, each scored 11 points for Warren County, but the Lady Pioneers dropped their sixth in the last eight games to end their season.
“This was very disappointing,” Panter said. “But if you can’t take care of the basketball, it’s hard to score. We’ve got two seniors (Myers and Emily Scott) that are pretty upset, especially Myers. She’s been a leader for four years and to end her career with a game like that – and she had a rough game too – is hard to take.”
Soddy-Daisy’s girls (14-15) were just handed a terrible season-ending beating by the Lady Jets (25-4), who lost to Bradley Central, 76-72, in last year’s region title game in Cookeville.
Iles was a wrecking ball and almost outscored the Lady Trojans by herself. In fact, Illes, who made five of Cumberland County’s 14 3-point shots, was leading 27-19 at the half.
Morgan Hopkins and Alexis Trimiar each scored 13 points for the Lady Trojans.
Alli Hyder and Destiny Carlton each added 11 points for the Lady Jets, who have won eight straight games and 13 of their last 14.
The Cleveland girls, No. 3 seed out of 5-AAA, fought hard, but could not recover from a 35-24 halftime deficit against White County’s Warriorettes (13-19), who are the 6-AAA’s No. 2 seed.
“Our girls played their hearts out,” Cleveland coach Mindy Kiser said.
Amber Morman paced the Lady Blue Raiders with 14 points and Shawnia Anderson added 10.
Bella Taylor and Emilee Howard each scored 15 points for the Warriorettes, who have won 15 of their last 17 games.
GAME SUMMARIES
Warren County 7 9 10 11 – 37
Bradley Central 23 7 10 19 – 59
Warren County (37) – Brittany Myers 11, Winfree 2, Turner 8, Rowland, Mason 1, Hitchcock, Elsa Eckenrod 11, Moore, Smith 4, Scott.
Bradley Central (59) – Halle Hughes 20, K. Brown, E.K. Brown 8, Morgan 1, Petterson, Rhyne Howard 22, Gaither 8, McRee, Davis.
3-Point Goals – Warren County 3 (Eckenrod 3), Bradley Central none.
Soddy-Daisy 7 12 19 7 – 45
Cumberland County 30 26 22 14 -- 92
Soddy-Daisy (45) – Hale, Morgan Hopkins 13, Sims, Alexis Trimiar 13, Bryant 2, King 7, Ward 3, Phillips, Woodward 4, Ghaffari 3.
Cumberland County (92) – Dick 7, Lee 7, Van Winkle 5, McLaughlin, Eldridge 2, Alli Hyder 11, Destiny Carlton 11, Makenzie Iles 35, Varney 9, Smith 2, Clark 3, Brown, Hinch.
3-Point Goals – Soddy-Daisy 2 (Ward 1, Woodward 1), Cumberland County 14 (Iles 5, Carlton 2, Varney 2, Clark 1, Hyder 1, Dick 1, Lee 1, Van Winkle 1).
Cleveland 10 14 12 17 – 53
White County 13 22 14 14 -- 63
Cleveland (53) – Ware 9, Scoggins 7, Stamatiadis 5, Crump 2, Shawnia Anderson 10, Amber Morman 14, Phillips, Person 3, McClendon 3.
White County (63) – Johnson, Bella Taylor 15, Luna 8, Quillen 6, Leftwich 8, Emilee Howard 15, Alexis Lewis 11.
3-Point Goals – Cleveland 2 (Ware 1, Stamatiadis 1), White County 3 (Howard 2, Luna 1).
Region 3-AAA Tournament
Monday Results
Girls
Bradley Central 49, Warren County 37
Cumberland County 92, Soddy-Daisy 45
White County 63, Cleveland 53
Cookeville 47, Walker Valley 41
Tuesday’s Games
Boys
Cumberland County (13-18) at Bradley Central (20-8), 7 p.m.
Cookeville (22-9) at Cleveland (17-8), 7 p.m.
Ooltewah (16-16) at Stone Memorial (14-16), 8 p.m.
Soddy-Daisy (11-18) at White County (26-3), 8 p.m.
Wednesday’s Games
Semifinals
Cumberland County girls vs. Cookeville, 4 p.m.
White Co.-Soddy-Daisy boys winner vs. Cleveland-Cookeville winner, 5:30 p.m.
Bradley Central girls vs. White County, 7 p.m.
Bradley-Cumberland boys winner vs. Stone Memorial-Ooltewah winner, 8:30 p.m.
Thursday’s Games
Girls championship, 6 p.m.
Boys championship, 7:30 p.m.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)