CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Bradley Central was hungry.
Stone Memorial was humbled.
State-ranked Bradley Central bashed youthful Stone Memorial, 66-27, Monday night in the Region 3-3A quarterfinals, burying the Lady Panthers under an avalanche of 32 turnovers and mighty few scoring chances at Jim Smiddy Arena.
“You don’t want your kids to get sloppy or lackadaisical and I don’t think they were tonight,” said coach Jason Reuter, whose squad has won 25 consecutive home games dating to the 2014-15 season. “Our last two games in the district were tight. Would I have rather had a tight game to prepare us more for the next one or a blowout? I’ll take the blowout at this time of the year to save our legs.”
The Bearettes (28-3), who have won 16 straight times since their last loss on Jan. 5, will play Cookeville (20-9) on Monday in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Central time at Cookeville High School.
The Lady Cavaliers ended East Hamilton’s season with a 42-33 victory. (Details below)
Cookeville finished second in District 6-3A behind Cumberland County.
In other quarterfinal games, Cumberland County blitzed Walker Valley, 70-39, and McMinn County, the runner-up to Bradley in the District 5-3A tournament, defeated White County, 49-47.
Cumberland County and McMinn County play in Monday’s second semifinal at about 7:30 p.m. Central.
The Bearettes, appearing in their 31st straight region tournament and 57th of the past 58 (the only year they missed was in 1984), pressured the Lady Panthers coming off the bus and it was more than they could handle.
Lexi Hench hit a 3 from the left wing, giving Stone Memorial a 3-2 lead, but Bradley scored the next 22 points to produce a 21-point first-quarter lead behind six points each by Howard, Julie Gaither and Emma Kate Brown.
Stone Memorial had taken five shots and committed 16 turnovers at the first break.
“Before the game our goal was to get 15,” Howard said. “We talked about pressuring them.”
Bradley more than doubled Stone Memorial’s miscues in the second half.
“Thirty-two is probably a record,” said Howard, who was honored before the game with a commemorative basketball recognizing her passing the 1,000-point career mark during last week’s district tournament.
Said Brown, “That’s a really big number (turnovers). They’re a young team and I think we made them look a lot worse than they were. They’re really not that bad, but we’re tough defensively though.”
Bradley outscored the Lady Panthers, who lost three times to the Bearettes by an average margin of 34.3 points, 14-2 for a 38-5 advantage.
The Bearettes were up 47-10 at halftime.
The Lady Panthers had taken just 14 shots and turned the ball over 26 times.
Ouch.
“I know,” said Brown, who registered 11 points, all in the first half, six rebounds. “Isn’t that crazy? Twenty-six turnovers. I was surprised at that.”
On two occasions when Stone players managed to get off shots, Howard blocked them.
The Bearettes shot 60 percent (24-of-40) in the game, but only 2-of-15 from 3-point distance, a paltry 16 percent. They were 1-for-16 in the first half.
Still, that was of little concern because Bradley’s defense was so stifling to the Lady Panthers, who have one senior and one junior – the rest of sophomores and freshmen – on their roster.
“We were young last year,” said Hughes, who finished with 14 points on 4-of-8 shooting and 6-of-9 free throws, “and we know the feeling. We played really good defense tonight. We definitely work more on our defense than offense in practice.”
With Howard on the sidelines except for a few seconds late, the Bearettes continued to stretch the lead and were out front 54-15 with 2:02 left in the third quarter.
Hughes, who averages 16 points, drove the baseline for an impressive layup, Gaither, Bradley’s on senior, drained a corner-3 and Howard made a jumper from the wing before heading back to the bench.
Howard led all scorers with 18 points, which is her season average.
Brown had 11 points and six rebounds while Sidney Morgan grabbed a team-high seven rebounds, six off the defensive glass.
Going into the final eight minutes when the TSSAA mercy rule – or, running clock – took effect Bradley was cruising with a 46-point lead.
The starters were on the sideline with Reuter.
“Our kids were hungry,” Reuter said. “We were are home and that meant a lot. You could tell that we’re a veteran team and Stone is very young. Word on the street is if the Bearettes don’t turn you over it’s a whole different ballgame. That’s like saying the sun’s going to come up in the morning.
“You could say that about any team. We turn people over because we can. I have a lot of respect for (Stone Memorial coach) Mike Buck and we weren’t trying to run the score up on them. I had Rhyne over there with me when the second half started.”
Another eye-catching defensive statistic: Bradley had 16 steals, including four each by Hughes and Howard, who pushed her season total to 107. Hughes is next at 47.
One more: Stone Memorial had three offensive rebounds, none in the first half.
“That’s because there were no offensive rebounds for them to get,” Reuter said. “They didn’t get that many shots.”
Of Bradley’s 28 rebounds, 17 were on the defensive end.
Stone Memorial (13-18) got 10 points from Hench.
Twelve of Stone Memorial’s points came in the fourth quarter against the Bearettes’ reserves.
Cookeville 42, East Hamilton 33: Kyndall Caudle and Madison Hayes each scored 11 points to pace the Lady Hurricanes (24-9).
A victory would have given East Hamilton a school record for wins in a season.
“They were just a little bit better team than us,” East Hamilton coach Tony Williams said. “We missed a lot of highly contested shots at the rim that we needed to make to give us a chance.
“We also missed eight free throws and you just can’t do that against such a quality opponent.”
The Lady Hurricanes were held in single digits in each of the first three quarters before they scored 17 in the last period when Caudle scored nine of her 11 points.
East Hamilton, under then-coach Derek Morris, also won 24 games in 2012-13 and 2010-11 while competing in District 6-2A. This year’s nine losses are a record season-low for the Lady Hurricanes.
Riley Mastels scored a game-high 15 points for the Lady Cavaliers. She has seven points in the fourth quarter.
Boxscore
Stone Memorial 3 7 5 12 – 27
Bradley Central 24 23 14 5 – 66
Stone Memorial (27) – Proffitt, Lexi Hench 10, Eldridge 5, Johnson 7, Stover, Selby, Hunt, Nelson, Reed 3, Tabor, Boyd.
Bradley Central (66)– Roberts, Halle Hughes 14, K. Brown 2, E.K. Brown 11, K. Hughes, Morgan 1, Rhyne Howard 18, Julia Gaither 10, Davis 2, McRee 7, Lombard 1.
3-Point Goals – Stone Memorial 2 (Hench 2), Bradley Central 2 (E.K. Brown 1, Gaither 1).
East Hamilton 4 8 4 17 – 33
Cookeville 8 9 10 15 – 42
East Hamilton (33) – Moon, Lacy 2, Kyndall Caudle 11, English, Scott, Madison Hayes 11, Gray, Zeh 2, Black 7.
Cookeville (42) – Bean 4, Riley Mastels 15, Savage 4, Gwynn 9, Whitson 7, Smith 3, Marck.
3-Point Goals – East Hamilton 1 (Hayes 1), Cookeville 1 (Smith 1).
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)