CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Big underdog Ooltewah tried its hand at slowing down Cleveland’s march through the District 5-3A basketball mine field on Thursday night.
The Owls’ plan failed just like that of the previous eight opponents.
Cleveland, ranked No. 1 in the state in the latest coachT.com’s poll, stormed past Ooltewah 77-52 at Raider Arena and remained unbeaten after discarding its latest challenge to league domination.
The Blue Raiders (19-2, 9-0 district) built a double-digit lead in the second quarter and maintained or stretched the margin the rest of the game.
Deontae Davis, a dead-eye, long-distance dandy with his flat-footed shots raining from all sides of the court, poured in 18 points that included five of his traditional 3-pointers.
Cleveland made nine 3s on the night.
Davis’ shooting philosophy is simple. If he’s open, he’s shooting.
“Coach (Jason) McCowan’s confidence in my shooting gives me a lot of confidence,” Davis said. “Our scheme is inside-out. If KK (Curry) kicks it out we normally have open shots. If we’re not open, we can always go back inside. That’s our routine.”
Davis said his single-game high for 3s was 10 in a freshman game. His varsity high is “either seven or eight, I think.”
McCowan rarely frets over Davis’ shot selection.
“Deontae has the green light at any time because he plays hard so defensively and rebounds,” McCowan said. “He has a lot of passion for the game and is getting what he’s earned.”
McCowan is not about to do anything about Davis’ odd shooting style either.
“His release is so quick and if it goes through the bottom of the net, that’s OK,” he said. “There wasn’t anybody changing Reggie Miller’s shot. You don’t see anybody blocking or tipping Deontae’s shot because of the quick release. I’ve been watching him middle school and all he does is make shots. I think that’s still the goal of this game.
“When he makes a bunch of3s it makes me look really smart, like I’m running really good plays.”
Davis drained two 3s in the first half with the first finishing off a 13-1 run that produced a 17-9 Cleveland lead after one quarter. The other came with 2:01 left in the second period and stretched the Raiders’ lead to 33-18.
Davis, who was icing his right knee during a postgame interview, rammed back-to-back 3s home early in the third that extended Cleveland’s point spread to 44-24. And his final long-range bomb gave the Raiders a 76-51 lead with 1:46 remaining in the game.
How did Owls coach Jay Williams think his defense did against Davis?
“Not very well,” he said. “They do a nice job spreading the floor and make it difficult to get weakside help. You’ve got to get the shooter or isolate the post. You have to pick your poison. They shot it well, made a bunch of 3s and that’s how they play the game.”
Curry, who is masterful around the rim, led the Raiders with a game-high 20 points, scoring 11 in the first half and nine in the third period.
Dionte Ware had 15 points and Norance Berry dropped in 11 as Cleveland won its sixth straight game.
“I thought we played pretty well, certainly not great,” McCowan said. “Give Ooltewah some credit because they kept their nose in there. Our lead hovered around 20, and I don’t want it to sound like I’m complaining about that, but we were just trading buckets because we weren’t getting many stops.
“We pushed it to a more comfortable lead when we got stops.”
Cleveland’s biggest lead was 64-41 early in the fourth quarter.
Corey Morgan scored 10 points to lead the Owls with nine coming in the first half. Omari Kendricks finished with nine points.
The Owls (5-11, 2-6) were without Daizon Taylor (one-game suspension). Taylor will be back on the floor Friday night when the Owls play at rival East Hamilton.
Cleveland girls 45, Ooltewah 25: The Lady Blue Raiders (9-12, 3-6) stretched a 10-point halftime lead to 32-15 after three quarters and cruised to an easy win that snapped a five-game losing skid. The last five losses came in district play.
Amber Morman led Cleveland with 10 points. Emma Flowers and Caitlin Reed each scored six points.
LINESCORES
Boys Game
Ooltewah 9 13 17 13 – 52
Cleveland 17 19 23 18 – 77
Ooltewah (52) – McReynolds 8, Tucker, Kendricks 9, Braden 5, Morgan 8, Chambers 8, Corey Morgan 10, Ju. Walker 1, Je. Walker, Houston, Howard, Henry 3.
Cleveland (77) – Wykle, Norance Berry 11, Bradford, KK Curry 20, Wood, Williams, Dionte Ware 15, Patterson, Deontae Davis 18, K. Ware 6, Cobb 7.
3-Point Goals – Ooltewah 3 (Kendricks 2, Braden 1), Cleveland 9 (Davis 5, Berry 2, D. Ware 1, Cobb 1).
Girls Game
Ooltewah 4 8 3 11 – 26
Cleveland 13 9 10 13 – 45
Ooltewah (26) – Cline 3, Poland 2, Courtney Swafford 8, Kilgore 4, Wardlaw, Mills, Collake 4, Lemon 3, Turman, Patterson.
Cleveland (45) – Reed 6, Renshaw, Colbaugh 4, Franklin 5, Stamatiadis 5, Goodman 3, Barton, Flowers 6, Mastin 2, Callahan, Rue 4, Amber Morman 10, Langford.
3-Point Goals – Ooltewah none, Cleveland 2 (Franklin 1, Stamatiadis 1).
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)