Bradley Central’s steamroll of is bracket in the Andrew Johnson Bank Ladies’ Classic in Greeneville, Tenn., went uninterrupted Friday night as the Bearettes blitzed Morristown West 73-47.
As has been their custom, the top-ranked Bearettes jumped all over another opponent early and went into halftime with a commanding 34-23 advantage. Bradley stretched the margin to 46-31 going into the fourth quarter.
With the victory top-ranked Bradley (15-0) advanced to the tournament championship game on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. against Oak Ridge. The Lady Wildcats beat South Greene 51-41 in the other semifinal at the Hal Henard Gymnasium.
Oak Ridge (13-1), which eliminated Bradley in the 2016 Class 3A state tournament semifinals, was led by Destiny Kassner’s 14 points and six rebounds and a double-double from Mykia Dowdell (12 points, 12 rebounds).
The Bearettes unleashed a well-balanced offensive attack on the Lady Trojans in the upper bracket semifinal showdown.
Halle Hughes led the way with 20 points of 9-of-14 shooting. Top reserve Kimia Carter tossed in 14 points and went 5 for 9 from the field. Emma Kate Brown hit only three of 10 shots she attempted from the floor, but all were 3-pointers and she finished with 13 points.
Hughes now has scored 1,517 career points and that moves her ahead of Rita Hannah into 13th place on the Bearettes’ all-time scoring list. The Lee University signee can now set her sights on No. 12 Martha Montgomery’s 1,730 mark.
Against Morristown West, Hughes hit a 3-pointer on an assist by Rhyne Howard to reach the 1,500-point plateau with 6:00 left in the first quarter. With 1:18 left in the period, Hughes got an offensive rebound and scored a second-chance field goal, giving her 1,502 points and she was off and running from there.
Howard, the team’s leading scorer with an 18.5-point average going into the game, was limited to 12 points. However, she still posted another double-double by pulling down 11 rebounds. Howard added four blocks, three assists and three steals.
Carter, who had four turnovers, and Kailey McRee also came up with three steals each. McRee had 10 rebounds as the Bearettes had a 41-32 edge in that category.
Bradley was 26 for 58 and the Lady Trojans (12-2) was far less efficient with 14-of47 shooting.
Game scoring honors went to Morristown West’s Sydney Newsome who had 26 points on 8-of-18 shooting. Newsome hit four 3-pointers and committed six of the team’s 17 turnovers. Blayre Shultz finished with 16 points, including
The Bearettes scored 14 fastbreak points to the Lady Trojans’ six; were 19-13 in points off turnovers; 16-5 on second-chance points and the bench outscored Morristown West 20-2.
LINESCORE
Bradley Central 18 26 12 17 – 73
Morristown West 11 12 8 16 – 47
Bradley Central (73) – Halle Hughes 20, Emma Kate Brown 13, Morgan 8, Rhyne Howard 12, McRee, Kimia Carter 14, K. Hughes, Reuter, Lombard, Hullender, Walker 6.
Morristown West (47) – Foster, Blayre Shultz 16, Bly. Shultz, Sydney Newsome 26, Harville 3, Phillips 2, Davis, Hefner, Simms.
3-Point Goals – Bradley Central 10 (Brown 3, H. Hughes 2, Morgan 2, Howard 2, Carter 1), Morristown West 7 (Newsome 4, Bla. Shultz 3).
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)