Bradley Central's Rhyne Howard, left, dribbles past a Knoxville Webb defender as teammate Emma Kate Brown sets a block during Tuesday nights' game at Jim Smiddy Arena. The unbeaten Bearettes (12-0) won 64-26.
photo by Courtesy Richard Roberts/Cleveland Daily Banner
CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Bradley Central’s top-ranked Bearettes just keep rolling on.
And the Bears are starting to look like they’re finding a rhythm as well.
The smooth-operating Bearettes (12-0) used a tenacious turnover-inducing three-quarter court zone press, strong rebounding and a game-changing 21-0 run in the first half to manhandle Knoxville Webb 63-26 Tuesday night at Jim Smiddy Arena.
It was Bradley Central’s 34th straight home-court win and came against a school that has appeared in 11 consecutive Division II-1A state championship games, according to the coacht.com website.
“We were bigger and longer at every position against them,” Bearettes coach Jason Reuter said. “There’s no substitution for height and that means a lot. I think Knox Webb is a better team than we made them look tonight, but we were able to take them out of their offense.
“They only scored 26 points and shot poorly and I don’t think we gave them very many open looks. I’m proud of our defense. Everybody was looking for the TKO and they were leading 10-8 when we hit the gas pedal and it was a domino effect; they made some turnovers and we got some fastbreak points. Our defense made our offense and that was the difference.”
Bradley’s boys got 23 points and 18 rebounds – 10 on the defensive glass – from Cole Copeland and Ty Beavers hit pivotal back-to-back 3-pointers in the fourth quarter as the Bears beat the visiting Spartans 59-46.
The Lady Spartans, coached by former Tennessee Lady Vols standout Shelley (Sexton) Collier, led 10-8 on Emily Wyrick’s layup, but failed again for until Haylee Luttrell’s bucket with 2:12 remaining in the second period.
Bradley took advantage of that scoring drought by running up 21 straight points and had a 36-14 lead at halftime.
“Casey Collier (the coach’s daughter) picked up two quick fouls and we’re just not the same team when she’s not in there,” said coach Collier, who played for the late Pat Summitt at Tennessee. “Bradley took us out of our scheme. We’re playing the No. 1 team in the state and number one (Halle Hughes) killed us. We held number 23 (Rhyne Howard) below her scoring average, but we couldn’t score.”
Hughes paced the Bearettes with 20 points. Howard added 13, all in the first half, and grabbed nine rebounds with North Carolina State coach Wes Moore sitting on the front row of the stands.
Kailey McRee turned in a double-double with 11 points – she made 5 of 6 shots – and 11 rebounds.
“That’s my first double-double of the year,” McRee said. “We always want to win the rebounding war and our defense is a big part of our game.”
Hughes, who leads the Bearettes with an 18.5-point average, also had six rebounds, three assists, two steals and no turnovers.
“I’m happiest about the no turnovers,” she said. “I’ve been focused on cutting down the turnovers all season.”
Hughes went into Tuesday game averaging 2.9 turnovers per game.
Luttrell was the only Lady Spartan in double figures with 14 points and also had 11 rebounds.
Nursing the early 10-8 lead, the Bearettes answered with Howard’s 3 from the right wing, Kimia Carter made a free throw and Howard came back with a layup.
Webb committed four straight turnovers and Howard hit a deep 3 at the buzzer with mere seconds left in the first half, but the goal was negated by a three-second lane violation.
Bradley’s lead after one quarter was 14-10.
The game turned on a dime minutes later.
Hughes made two free throws. Emma Kate Brown hit a downtown 3, McRee scored on a put-back and Hughes added a layup.
Howard made one of two free throws, Hannah Lombard dropped a bucket and Carter scored on an assist from Howard to cap the 21-0 spree and push the Bearettes’ lead to 29-10.
Luttrell snapped the Lady Spartans’ dry spell, but Howard hit a 3 and a free throw and Brown’s left-wing 3 gave Bradley a 36-12 lead before Luttrell scored with 23.8 seconds left in the opening half.
The outcome was never in doubt after that.
“We knew Webb would give us some competition,” Howard said. “But our defense was really good. If we create more turnovers we’re going to have more fastbreaks for easy shots.”
The Bearettes had a 12-0 edge in fastbreak points and 23-2 in points off turnovers. The rebounding helped Bradley to a 23-7 advantage in second-chance points and Reuter’s bench outscored Webb 12-0.
“We just didn’t do a very good job in three of the four quarters,” Collier said. “Bradley is a great team, they’re well-coached and (Howard) is a special player. I thought we would have competed better than we did, but Bradley will be contending at the end of this season.
“We’ll try to do better when we played them in Knoxville on Jan. 31.”
Reuter, whose daughter Rebecca is on the same Middle Tennessee State women’s team as Collier’s daughter Katie, would expect nothing less from the Lady Spartans.
“Right now we have a few more athletes than they do, but I’m sure it’ll be a tighter game when we play them at their gym.”
Bradley’s dominance was evident in key statistics.
The Bearettes outrebounded the Lady Spartans 44-26.
Webb committed 20 turnovers, seven by Wyrick. Bradley had six miscues, two by McRee.
Webb went 10 of 38 from the field (26.3 percent), including 1 of 11 on 3s. Bradley was 22 for 59 from the field (37.3 percent) and 7 of 20 behind the arc (35 percent). The Bearettes had a big edge at the charity stripe, hitting 13 of 20 while Webb went 5 of 8.
Bradley Central boys 59, Knox Webb 46: The Bears (6-5) led 42-39 after a pair of John Brown free throws early in the final period and then Beavers, who finished with 12 points despite being tightly defended the entire game, drained two corner 3s to extend the margin to 48-39.
“Ty’s 3-pointers were the key tonight,” Bears coach Chuck Clark said. “They gave us momentum. He didn’t have many good looks during the game because they knew he could shoot the 3-ball pretty good. But those two he hit ignited us in the fourth quarter.”
As soon as Beavers touched the ball, a Webb defender was right in his grill. However, on the two clutch shots in the final period Beavers was wide open and he made the Spartans pay.
“That surprised me,” Beavers said of his clear sight line to the rim. “They had taken the corners away from me all night. But I found the open spots later and knocked them down. I was open and had to take advantage of that.”
Webb managed just three points – Myles Rasnick’s three-point play – in the first seven minutes of the final quarter and trailed by 57-42 with 1:27 remaining.
Webb worked into a 29-27 halftime lead, but Copeland was starting to look like he had found his basketball groove with 14 first-half points.
Copeland’s two free throws gave the Bears a 38-34 lead with 2:13 left in the third period. Webb’s Charlie Wyrick nailed a contested 3 and Chase Ridenour, who scored a team-high 14 points, made two free throws for a 39-38 advantage.
Jared Elrod’s tip-in with 0:02 seconds left gave the Bears a 40-39 lead going to the fourth quarter.
In one stretch from the 3:00 mark to 1:47, Copeland hit a field goal and three free throws that extended the Bears’ lead to 55-42.
Wyrick, Rasnick and Emory Lanier each had 10 points for the Spartans.
Linescores
Girls Game
Knoxville Webb 10 4 10 2 – 26
Bradley Central 14 22 12 16 -- 64
Knoxville Webb (26) – Wyrick 2, Haylee Luttrell 14, S. Collier 4, C. Collier 0, Munday 3, Jefferson, Green, Musrock, Zitzman 1.
Bradley Central (64) – Halle Hughes 20, Brown 8, Morgan, Rhyne Howard 13, Kailey McRee 11, Roberts, Carter 3, K. Hughes, Mayo 2, Lombard 5, Walker 2.
3-Point Goals – Knoxville Webb 1 (C. Collier 1), Bradley Central 7 (H. Hughes 3, Brown 2, Howard 2).
Boys Game
Knoxville Webb 13 16 10 7 -- 46
Bradley Central 15 12 13 19 -- 59
Knoxville Webb (46) – Charlie Wyrick 10, Green, Jefferson, Bouchard Dean, Bazel, Daughton 2, Foy, Myles Rasnick 10, Emory Lanier 10, Chase Ridenour 14.
Bradley Central (59) – Cartwright, Brown 9, Cole Copeland 23, Duggan 4, Tucker 7, Wesley, Ty Beavers 12, Elrod 4.
3-Point Goals – Knoxville Webb 6 (Wyrick 2, Lanier 2, Rasnick 1, Ridenour 1), Bradley Central 6 (Copeland 2, Beavers 2, Brown 1, Tucker 1).
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)