Cookeville crammed the paint defensively and outrebounded Cleveland by 14 to squeak by the Blue Raiders 52-48 and advance to the Class AAA Region 3 semifinals.
The Cavaliers sat back in a 2-3 zone, daring Cleveland to shoot the ball early. The Blue Raiders let it fly to no avail, and the Cookeville frontline of Bryric Savaage and Trey Bundrant dominated the glass to blow open a big early lead for the Cavaliers.
Savaage anchored the zone and proved to be too much for Cleveland’s frontline to handle on offense and defense as he finished with a double-double of 14 points and 14 rebounds.
“Overall, I played well … and we played hard defensively,” Savaage said while also harping on himself for missing late free throws that allowed a big Blue Raider surge in the second half.
Offensively, Jadon Richmond led the Cavaliers with 19 points while hitting five shots from behind the 3-point line.
“Coach was getting mad at me for passing up shots in the first half,” Richmond said.
“He told me if I got the ball I needed to shoot it and not think twice about it. That’s when I usually make them, so that gave us a little spark.”
“That’s what Jadon can do,” Cookeville Head Coach Kevin Bray said of Richmond’s performance. “He’s capable of that. He hasn’t done it very often, but he’s capable of doing that any night. He picked a good night to do it.”
Cookeville built a big lead throughout the first half and early on in the second half. Richmond hit his second and third 3-pointers of the game 17 seconds apart just after halftime to push the Cavaliers ahead 32-17.
However, Cleveland made a furious comeback led by Contrel Ware who scored all of his 13 points in the second half. Ware’s play combined with poor free throw shooting from Cookeville led the Blue Raiders storming back to cut the game to single digits.
Cleveland used defensive pressure and relentless driving to attack the paint and chip away at the lead. Richmond fouled out after hacking Ware on a drive, and Cleveland pulled the game within five points in the last minute of the game.
However, the Blue Raiders missed late free throws and shots from behind the 3-point arc that could have kept the season alive before ultimately dropping the contest 52-48.
“We had better energy (in the second half) than when we started,” Cleveland Head Coach Jason McCowan said. “I thought we came out really flat, and if we would have played with that kind of energy the whole game then I don’t think the 3-point misses and free throw misses would have been as glaring as they were.”
With the loss, Cleveland’s season comes to a close. Cookeville will play fellow District 6-AAA foe White County on Wednesday at Ooltewah at 6 p.m. EST.
White County won both games in the regular season against Cookeville. The latest matchup being a Feb. 3 showdown that ended with a 76-45 White County victory between the district’s top two teams.
Scoring Summary
Cookeville 12 14 13 13 – 52
Cleveland 5 10 15 17 – 48
Cookeville (52) – Richmond 19, Buford 3, Wilberscheid 1, Carver 4, Savaage 14, Bundrant 11.
Cleveland (48) – Dennard 6, Gibson 5, Constant 4, C. Ware 13, Vecchio 6, Hill 9, K. Ware 5.
3-point goals- Cookeville 5 (Richmond 5, Bundrant), Cleveland 4 (C. Ware 2, Vecchio, K. Ware).
(E-mail Mark Pace at MarkEPace@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @THEMarkPace)