No. 1 Seed Cleveland On Long Layoff Prior To District 5-3A Tourney

Ooltewah, Soddy-Daisy Squads Tip Off Event Wednesday

Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Larry Fleming

Cleveland's Deontae Davis (22)
photo by Dennis Norwood

Back in June, Cleveland basketball coach Jason McCowan would have been hard-pressed to think his Blue Raiders would be 22-3, District 5-3A regular-season champions and the No. 1 seed for the postseason tournament that starts Wednesday at Soddy-Daisy High School.

“We weren’t very good when we started,” McCowan said during Tuesday’s practice at Raider Arena. “But, for me as a coach, our improvement has been off the chart and it’s the same kids.”

The Raiders have won nine of their last 10 games, the lone loss a 78-77 last-second loss to East Hamilton that prevented them from finishing 12-0 in the district.

The summer schedule was tough by design. McCowan, the 2016-17 league coach of the year, scheduled three games at Belmont University and three the next day at Middle Tennessee State University.

“We went 1-and-5 in those two days,” he said. “We lost to some really good teams, including Alabama and Atlanta. “I wanted to show the guys there are some really good teams out there, but we didn’t really play very good basketball. I was still a little concerned as we got to November.”

McCowan consistently tried to hit the right button to challenge his players and get them on the right track. Admittedly, McCowan says that’s not always an easy thing to do.

“Sometimes you hit it dead-on and sometimes you miss it by 12 feet,” he said. “The summer opened our eyes and let us know we had a lot of work to do. There were some accountability things in the summer they just didn’t do very well on.

“If they didn’t get in the gym and work we were going to feel what we felt in the summer. Luckily, we found the right button early instead of waiting until December in our attempt to be ready in January and February.”

Cleveland, which garnered a berth in the district semifinals via its No. 1 seed, won’t play until Saturday at 4:30 p.m.

But dynamic junior KK Curry, who finished runner-up to Bradley Central’s Cole Copeland in the player of the year balloting, said the Raiders are ready for the tournament season to begin.

“We were disappointed that we weren’t 12-0 in the district,” he said. “That was our first goal for the season and we came up a little short. We’re really hyped about the tournament. We haven’t won the tournament in a while, at least not in the last three or four years, so we want to get that rolling again. That’s a real motivation for us.”

The fact is Cleveland hasn’t won a district tournament title since 2010 when it knocked off Ooltewah 65-54 in the championship game. The Raiders played in the 2014 and 2015 title games, but lost to Walker Valley and Bradley Central, respectively.

“We’d like to change that,” McCowan said.

This year might be just as difficult.

Third-seeded Bradley is healthy again and had a big win against No. 2 East Hamilton and beat state-ranked Maryville on Monday and will go into the tournament on an impressive roll. The Bears have won six straight.

Walker Valley at No. 4 always seems to hit another gear when the postseason gets under way.

Everyone knows East Hamilton is capable of beating any district foe on any given night.

Another worrisome factor for Cleveland is this: it hasn’t played since Feb. 4. Cleveland struggled for three full quarters to shake off the Hurricanes loss, but finally went on a 25-6 run in the fourth period to subdue Cumberland County 75-52.

The Raiders had games scheduled with Rhea County and Notre Dame, but they were cancelled when Bradley schools closed due to many students sick with the flu.

“I had no idea Cumberland County would be our last game,” McCowan said.

That brings up the issue of how the Blue Raiders will react to the long layoff.

“We have to keep our motivation up,” said Deontae Davis, Cleveland’s 3-point shooting whiz kid said. “We have to play like we’ve been practicing and can’t let up at all. We feel confident for the tournament.”

Cleveland opened the season with 11 straight wins before losing 76-56 to state-ranked Oak Ridge. Three games later the Blue Raiders dropped a 66-64 decision to a talented Clarksville Northeast team in their own holiday classic.

Now, McCowan is waiting to see how his squad will eventually handle the down time.

“There is an unknown about it,” he said. “Are you going to be fresh or rusty? We won’t know until Saturday at 4:30 when we tip it off. We’ve had good practices and a nice scrimmage, but 15 days is a long time.”

Things are more clear-cut on the girls’ side.

Undefeated Bradley Central 27-0, ranked No. 1 in the state by coacht.com and led by junior Rhyne Howard, the district’s two-time player of the year, and senior Halle Hughes, is a heavy favorite to capture a sixth straight tourney title.

The Bearettes, having just won their sixth straight regular-season crown, have a 37-game winning streak against district opponents, including postseason games. Their average margin of victory this season in league play was 48 points. Bradley has claimed 42 straight district games at home.

Bradley coach Jason Reuter gave his team the day off Tuesday and plans to give his players a chance to rest and for some an opportunity to put battles with the flu behind them. They will return to practice on Wednesday, most likely, working against freshman boys, something he’s done routinely in the past.

“There’s a fine line between practicing hard and not getting hurt,” Reuter said after Monday’s big win against Maryville. “I read somewhere that Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski will sometime go five-on-air with his players. Imagine that. We have to stay sharp, but we have to stay healthy and that’s what we’ll do.”

Bradley Central, gunning for its first undefeated season since 1975-76 when it posted the program’s second straight 36-0 campaign, beat Maryville 57-29 on Monday to close out the regular season.

Maryville had lost a 56-52 decision earlier in the season on its home court. Only Stone Memorial played the Bearettes closer, losing 48-46 on Dec. 9.

“The Maryville game will be good for us because they were stronger competition, even though the score might not show that,” Howard said.

Added Hughes, “They’re a little more physical than most teams we play. They’re well-coached, better prepared and better than their record. They gave us a run for our money both times we played and certainly have our respect.”

East Hamilton is the girls’ No. 2 seed, Walker Valley No. 3 and McMinn County No. 4.

Host Soddy-Daisy and Ooltewah tip off the tournament with boys’ and girls’ games Wednesday night. Walker Valley awaits the winner of the Lady Owls and Lady Trojans on Thursday at 6 p.m.

Bradley Central’s Bears, the No. 3 seed, will play the Owls-Trojans winner on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

Tournament Schedule

Seeds in Parenthesis

Wednesday

(7) Ooltewah girls vs. (6) Soddy-Daisy, 6 p.m.

(7) Soddy-Daisy boys vs. (6) Ooltewah, 7:30 p.m.

Thursday

(6) Soddy-Daisy-(7) Ooltewah girls winner vs. (3) Walker Valley, 6 p.m.

(6) Ooltewah-(7) Soddy-Daisy boys winner vs. (3) Bradley Central, 7:30 p.m.

Friday

(5) Cleveland girls vs. (4) McMinn County, 6 p.m.

(5) McMinn County boys vs. (4) Walker Valley, 7:30 p.m.