District 5-AAA’s reputation was being shredded.
Of four Region 3-AAA semifinal matchups Friday, Bradley Central’s boys and girls were the only hopes for the district to pull out wins.
Then the Bearettes went down after suffering a heartbreaking, 64-60, double-overtime loss in a hard-fought hardwood thriller against White County, the No. 2 seed from District 6-AAA, at Ooltewah High School.
That left the Bears as the lone 5-AAA still alive.
Coach Chuck Clark’s squad jumped on Stone Memorial, the second seed from 6-AAA, fast and cruised to a 49-28 win behind a game-high 22 points from sophomore Cole Copeland that salvaged the district’s battered pride.
“This is the first year that’s happened,” said Clark, referring to District 5-AAA’s dominance in the semifinals, which had been delayed by horrid winter weather since Saturday.
“The roles have been reversed most of the time, but every district has its cycles. I guess what that says is we got a good draw when Stone upset Cookeville to throw a monkey wrench into the bracketing.”
The Bears (22-8), who beat the Panthers for the third time this season, advanced to the championship game against White County (28-3) on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The Warriors were impressive in defeating their 6-AAA rival Cookeville, 66-61.
White County’s Lady Warriors (28-3), the No. 2 seed from 6-AAA, will face top-seeded Cumberland County (25-4) for the girls championship at 6 p.m. Cumberland County whipped Cookeville, 56-41.
Bradley Central’s win prevented championship Saturday from becoming an all-District 6-AAA affair.
The Bears, who lost to 5-AAA rival Walker Valley, 67-50, in last season’s tournament semifinals in Cookeville, built a 23-9 first-half lead. Up 37-25 early in the fourth period, Bradley Central went on a 12-0 run that buckled Stone Memorial’s knees and produced a 49-25 advantage.
“We felt confident going in,” Clark said. “We knew Stone pretty well. It was a good matchup for us. Coach (Neil) Capps has done a good job with those guys to get them where they are right now. They didn’t look good when we played them before Christmas, but they turned a corner in a Christmas tournament up at Maryville.”
“What he did I don’t know, but the magic dust did well for him.”
Bradley will be trying to win its second region title in three seasons. The Bears beat Ooltewah for the 2013 championship and lost to 5-AAA’s Walker Valley in last year’s title game.
But it won’t be easy.
White County has won 13 of its last 14 games, the only setback a 67-51 decision against Lebanon on Feb. 9.
Cade Crosland poured in a game-high 24 points, including 6 of the team’s nine 3-pointers, to lead White County. He made three 3s in the first quarter and the Warriors went 11-of-12 from the free-throw line in the fourth period.
“They’re a tough team,” Clark said. “I will stay up late tonight and watch video and try to figure out a way we can beat them.”
Crosland’s two free throws gave White County a 59-57 lead with 60 seconds remaining. Buford countered with a driving layup. On the other end, Vaughn made two charity tosses for the Warriors, Buford dropped in a pair and Jacob Fresh hit twice from the stripe with 31.6 seconds left, giving White County a 63-58 lead.
Henderson hit a free throw and dunked after a Cookeville turnover to give White County a 66-60 advantage with 5.4 seconds on the clock. Buford hit one free throw for the Cavaliers, missed the second, and time ran out.
“They’re a pretty dang good team,” Copeland said of the Warriors. “We’ve got to bring our ‘A’ game against them (Saturday).”
Copeland was the lone Bradley player in double figures.
“Cole had a great night,” Clark said, “and a lot of those points came on second-chance shots when he went after the ball, got a rebound and put it back up. And he took the ball to the hole hard when we got them spread out.”
In the 12-0 run that put the Panthers (15-17) away, Copeland scored six points on layups.
Gage Spence scored 13 points to lead Stone Memorial, which had posted seven consecutive 20-win seasons prior to the 2014-15 campaign. The first six highly successful seasons came when Stone Memorial was competing in Class AA.
But Spence’s night was done, that’s when the Bears unleashed their most impressive transitional streak of the game.
“When they took Gage out of the game, that was our cue to put more ball pressure on them,” Clark said. “He’s such a good player that it’s hard to put a whole lot of pressure on him. He’s really smart.”
The Bearettes were gunning for their fifth straight region tournament title, but went through a tough scoring drought covering the final 2:01 of the first overtime and first 3:22 of the second overtime.
Before that scoreless streak ended, White County started hitting free throws that put Bradley in a bind.
“I think we had plenty of opportunities to win the game,” Bearettes coach Jason Reuter said. “They’re a very good team and I tip my hat to them. They made free throws at the end and we didn’t. That’s like the golf analogy, ‘If I could make my putts I’d be a pretty good golfer.’ ”
Bradley freshman Rhyne Howard, who pumped in a game-high 23 points on 10-of-12 shooting (she was 8-of-9 on field goals and 2-of-3 on 3-pointers) scored the Bearettes’ only six points in the two 4-minute overtimes. She also had 11 rebounds in the game.
“We’re really frustrated,” said Howard, tears rolling down her face. “We’ve be motivated for next year because of this loss. I think we should have won this game.”
Howard missed a field goal in the first minute of play and then was off the mark with a 3-pointer with 3.9 seconds left in the second overtime.
Emma Kate Brown and Halle Hughes each scored 13 points for Bradley Central. Brown, Hughes and Julia Gaither all fouled out of the game. Howard and Kailey McRee each finished with four fouls.
“I was limited with timeouts there and we ran out of experienced bodies,” Bradley Central coach Jason Reuter said. “There’s something to be said for depth.”
The Bearettes’ fouling helped White County make 24-of-31 free throws. The Bearettes (22-6), who shot 53 percent from inside the 3-point arc, went 13-of-21 from the stripe.
Another telling statistic line for Bradley was 22 turnovers, including eight by Howard.
“That’s way too many turnovers and that’s uncharacteristic for Rhyne,” Reuter said.
A lot of things added up to Bradley losing, none of which made it any easier for the players to accept that their season had just ended.
“This is tough,” said Brown, who suffered a gash on her chin trying to take a third-period charge. “We’re hurting a lot for each other right now, but I think we can come back next year and do better.”
Brown quickly returned to the action and finished the game gauge on the cut and held in place by tape all the way around her head like an old West dentist might wrap an hombre suffering from a toothache.
“I think I’m going to need stitches,” Brown said.
The Bearettes, who spotted the Lady Warriors a 10-0 lead starting the game, battled back and had a 19-18 halftime lead. Howard scored her first points on a layup with 4:06 left in the second period to start a personal 6-0 run for the Bearettes.
Gaither’s 3 gave Bradley its first lead of the game at 19-18.
White County led 20-19 when the Bearettes went on a 19-4 run and opened a 38-24 lead with 2:23 left in the third period. Bradley’s advantage was 44-34 less than a minute into the final quarter.
When Gaither hit two free throws with 11.5 left in regulation, the Bearettes led 54-52.
White County’s Alex Lewis drove the lane for a layup with 4.6 left that sent the game into overtime.
The Lady Warriors’ DeAndra Luna hit a free throw and Howard connected for Bradley for the only scoring in the first OT. Luna finished with 14 points, the final nine coming on free throws in the fourth quarter and overtime periods (White County went 9-of-10 in overtime).
With the game still tied at 55 two minutes into the second overtime, Logan Quillen, Luna and Emilee Howard, who paced the Lady Warriors with 15 points, combined for 6-of-6 free throws.
Rhyne Howard hit a lane jumper with 37.6 seconds left.
Quillen made the second of two free throws.
Howard drained a 3 from the top of the circle and Bradley trailed by 62-60 with 26 seconds on the clock.
Emilee Howard knocked down two more free throws. Rhyne Howard’s 3 with 3.9 seconds remaining was off the mark and time expired.
“It seemed like in the second half every close call went against us, including an over-and-back on a tipped ball that I’ve never seen in my life,” said Reuter, 136-23 in five seasons. “But you win with class and lose with class.
“We’ve had our share of success, but this one’s going to sting. My girls never quit and I don’t want to say we overachieved, but most people didn’t think we could win our district, but we did and the district tournament too. There’s just a fraction between winning and losing. We needed one more stop in the second half and we couldn’t get it. White won and we didn’t.”
Game Summaries
Girls Semifinals
Cookeville 11 10 11 9 – 41
Cumberland County 13 13 19 11 – 56
Cookeville (41) – Dean 8, Toiya Gwynn10, Maberry 2, Masters, 6, Savage 9, Whitson 6, Marek, Craighead.
Cumberland County (56) – Gina Dick 15, Lee 2, Eldridge 3, Hyder 4, Destiny Carlton 11, Iles 7, Klaire Varney 14, Smith.
3-Point Goals – Cookeville 1 (Bean 1), Cumberland County 2 (Dick 1, Varney 1).
White County 13 5 13 24 1 9 – 64
Bradley Central 6 13 21 14 1 5 – 60
White County (60) – Johnson 6, Bella Taylor 11, H. Howard, DeAndra Luna 14, Quillen 7, Leftwich, Emilee Howard 15, Lewis 9.
Bradley Central (60) – Halle Hughes 13, K. Brown 3, Emma Kate Brown 13, Morgan, Rhyne Howard 23, Gaither 6, McRee 2, Davis.
3-Point Goals – White County 6 (E. Howard 3, Johnson 2, Luna 1), Bradley Central 4 (Howard 2, Hughes 1, K. Brown 1).
Boys Semifinals
Cookeville 9 13 21 18 – 61
White County 16 14 15 21 – 66
Cookeville (61) – Richmond 6, Will Buford 11, Wilberscheid 1, Solon Carver15, Bryne Savage 14, Trey Bundrant 14.
White County (66) – Newport 2, Kordell Henderson 11, Cole Vaughn 15, Zack Stephenson 10, Robbins, Cade Crosland 24, Fresh 4, Whited.
3-Point Goals – Cookeville 3 (Richmond 2, Carver 1), White County 9 (Crosland 6, Henderson 1, Vaughn 1, Stephenson 1).
Stone Memorial 5 4 14 5 – 28
Bradley Central 9 14 12 14 – 49
Stone Memorial (28) – Gage Spence 13, Baucum, Norman 5, Sexton, Orme 2, Thomas, Hill 4, Houston, Russell 3, Foster 1.
Bradley Central (49) – Clark 6, Cole Copeland 22, Maroon 5, Pitner 5, McCurdy 9, Beavers 2, Morgan, Rymer, Goode, Tucker, Brown.
3-Point Goals – Stone Memorial 2 (Spence 1, Norman 1), Bradley Central 5 (Clark 1, Copeland 1, Maroon 1, Pitner 1, McCurdy 1).
Friday’s Schedule
Girls Championship
Cumberland County (26-4) vs. White County (28-3), 6 p.m.
Boys Championship
White County (28-3) vs. Bradley Central (22-8), 7:30 p.m.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)