CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Bradley Central’s girls squeezed out a 56-52 victory over Maryville when the teams played in Blount County earlier this season.
The Bearettes didn’t allow Monday’s return match at Jim Smiddy Arena to get anywhere near that close.
Bradley Central, ranked No. 1 in Tennessee by the coacht.com website, defeated the visiting Lady Rebels 57-29 in a non-district showdown to improve to 27-0 and match the best regular-season record in school history.
“They shot lights out at their place and we didn’t shoot good,” two-time District 5-3A Player of the Year Rhyne Howard said. “Tonight, they didn’t shoot well and we shot OK. This game was good for us because Maryville is stronger competition even though the score might not show it.”
Bradley Central's boys avenged one of its worst losses ever by upsetting state-ranked Maryville 57-52 in Monday’s nightcap.
The Bearettes of 1974-75 and 1975-76 posted back-to-back unbeaten of 27-0 and 26-0 regular seasons and both squads went on to finish 36-0 and claim state championships. The 1924-25 Bearettes went 8-0.
On senior night, the Bearettes got a superb effort from Emma Kate Brown, who scored a game-high 16 points and grabbed six rebounds, five steals and two assists
Halle Hughes scored 15 points despite still recovering from the flu.
Howard, a junior, did not start the game, giving way to Savana Davis, but had 11 points, 11 rebounds and six steals while plagued with foul trouble for most of her 21 minutes on the floor.
Bradley Central coach Jason Reuter started an all-senior lineup – Brown, Hughes, Sydney Morgan, Savana Davis and Kailey McRee – against Maryville (15-11), which saw its five-game winning streak come to an end.
Howard, one of the state’s premier basketball prospects for 2018, came off the bench less than 3 minutes into the game and scored her first field goal five seconds later.
“This win means a lot to our seniors and the rest of the team feels good helping them get a big win on senior night,” said Howard, who went 4 for 14 from the field, including missing all five 3-point attempts.
She wasn’t alone in putting up errant shots.
Hughes made 5-of-14 tries.
The Bearettes hit 3-of-19 from 3-point distance. Brown made two of the team’s three 3s.
“This was so enjoyable,” said Brown, who plans to play college ball at Milligan. “It was special and I was looking forward to the game. And the win was awesome.
“We didn’t have one of our best offensive games, but that shows we don’t always depend on our offense. We are a defensive-minded team that gets turnovers and stop when we need them. That’s what’s so special about this team.”
In one second-quarter stretch, Brown, who is averaging seven points and 3.7 rebounds this season, scored nine of Bradley’s 15 points. Her last bucket was a 3-pointer and she made another with 1:21 left for the Bearettes’ final points.
“As a coaching staff, we all said at halftime, ‘Thank the good Lord Emma Kate is having a good game,’ ” Reuter said. “If I was giving a MVP tonight, it would be Emma Kate Brown. She had the 16 points, six boards, five steals, two assists and no turnovers.”
Bradley Central coach Jason Reuter, 195-27 in seven seasons coaching the Bearettes,
The Bearettes forced 24 turnovers, 14 of which came in the first half when they built a 29-13 advantage. Maryville’s Abby Anderson had seven miscues. The Bearettes turned the ball over 11 times with Kimia Carter committing five turnovers.
Carter scored eight points and grabbed six rebounds and McRee added six rebounds.
The Lady Rebels shot 23.8 percent in the first half and went 11 for 14 (25 percent) in the game. They never reached double figures in any quarter.
Maryville started the third quarter with back-to-back 3s by Anna Ray and Anderson to trim its deficit to 29-18. The Bearettes scored 11 of the final 15 points and had a 41-22 lead going to the fourth quarter.
Bradley Central outscored Maryville 11-2 opening the final period with Howard and Brown each scoring four points in the run that produced a 52-24 margin.
“We knew it would be tough,” said Hughes, who pushed her career scoring total to 1,740 points, which is 14th on the team’s all-time list. “They’re better than most teams we’ve played. Their physical play was good for us going into the district tournament. We needed that.”
Reuter, while voicing his displeasure with his team’s play in some stretches during the game, said Maryville had something to do with that.
“We’ve had such a year and we won by 28 points,” he said. “For most programs it would be celebration time with milkshakes, hot dogs and hamburgers. Nothing came easy tonight and I’m going to credit Maryville. They played as hard as they could.”
Bradley Central boys 57, Maryville 52: The Bears (17-8) got revenge for an 81-45 shellacking by the Rebels in their own Renasant Bank Christmas tournament in late December in the only “mercy rule” loss in Bradley history.
The Bears snapped a five-game losing streak to Maryville (22-4), ranked No. 2 by coacht.com, and leadsthe in the all-time series, 14-6.
Lameric Tucker led the Bears with 13 points, eight coming in the fourth quarter. Cole Copeland, the three-time District 5-3A Player of the Year, put up eight points in the first half and finished with 12. Ty Beavers added 12 points with seven in the final period.
Coach Chuck Clark’s Bears, who lead 28-24 at halftime, had a 40-37 lead going to the fourth.
Bradley connected on 20-of-26 free throws to Maryville’s 11-of-18.
The Rebels got 14 points from Spencer Lowe and 10 each by Easton Upchurch and Jacob Giles.
LINESCORES
Girls Game
Maryville 6 7 9 7 – 29
Bradley Central 12 17 12 16 – 57
Maryville (29) – Anderson 2, Carruthers 4, Ray 5, Olivia Pepperman 7, Taylor, West, Cunningham 2, Johnson, Patterson 2, Richardson, Jasmine Ervin 7, Adkins.
Bradley Central (57) – Halle Hughes 15, Emma Kate Brown 16, Morgan, Davis, McRee 4, Carter 8, K. Hughes, Rhyne Howard 11, Lombard 1, Walker 2
3-Point Goals – Maryville 1 (Ray), Bradley Central 3 (Brown 2, H. Hughes 1).
Boys Game
Maryville 11 13 13 15 – 52
Bradley Central 12 16 12 17 – 57
Maryville (52) – Easton Upchurch 10, Kimble 7, Jacob Giles 10, Garett 1, Spencer Lowe 14, Anderson 6, Quigg, Brown, Blackman 4.
Bradley Central (57) – Cartwright 4, Brown 9, Cole Copeland 12, Duggan, Lameric Tucker 13, Clark 7, Ty Beavers 12, Elrod.
3-Point Goals – Maryville 3 (Anderson 2, Giles 1), Bradley Central 4 (Copeland 1, Tucker 1, Clark 1, Beavers 1).
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)