MVP Howard Leads Bradley To Seventh Straight District 5-3A Tourney Title

Unbeaten Bearettes Swamp East Hamilton 81-40 For 29th Win

  • Monday, February 20, 2017
  • Larry Fleming
Bradley Central's junior point guard Rhyne Howard goes up for two of her game-high 24 points Monday night the Bearettes' 81-40 win against East Hamilton for the District 5-3A tournament championship at Soddy-Daisy.
Bradley Central's junior point guard Rhyne Howard goes up for two of her game-high 24 points Monday night the Bearettes' 81-40 win against East Hamilton for the District 5-3A tournament championship at Soddy-Daisy.
photo by Dennis Norwood

Two key Bradley Central scoring sprees spelled basketball doom for East Hamilton in Monday’s District 5-3A tournament championship game at Soddy-Daisy.

One, the top-ranked and unbeaten Bearettes (29-0) went on a 15-1 to close the second quarter, building a 37-20 halftime lead.

Two, Bradley Central started the third period on a 22-6 run and extended the lead to 59-26 and went on to a crushing 81-40 victory to claim its seventh straight tournament title and 61st overall since the school opened in 1922-23 behind a strong MVP effort by junior Rhyne Howard.

“I just try to play to the best of my ability,” said the 6-foot-2 junior point guard, who led all players with 24 points and eight rebounds while picking up her second straight MVP award. If you do that, you’ll get some recognition. I’m grateful.”

Howard is a four-time all-district player, including her eighth-grade season at East Hamilton.   

Well, Bradley coach Jason Reuter did after Howard scored 30 points against Walker Valley in the title-game victory.

As a freshman Howard made the all-tournament team but no MVP was selected that season.

Bradley coach Jason Reuter took care of that.

“We don’t name a district tournament MVP,” Reuter said at the time, but I’m naming Rhyne Howard my MVP. Without a senior, without the district (regular season) MVP, without the district coach of the year, it is remarkable what these girls accomplished to win our fifth straight tournament title.”

Howard was joined on this year’s all-tournament team by senior teammates Kailey McRee, Sydney Morgan and Halle Hughes.

Hughes finished with 16 points and five assists. McRee had eight points and six rebounds. Morgan scored nine points and got three of the Bearettes’ 13 steals.

Sophomore Kimia Carter added 10 points.

“I’ve coached a lot of good teams at Arlington and I’ve seen some other good teams,” East Hamilton’s first-year coach Hunter Gremore. “But that (Bradley) is the best team I’ve ever seen in all my years coaching.

“We are nowhere near the team Bradley is, but they are where we want to be. They’re 100 percent better than us. They get the15-1 run in the second quarter and stuck the dagger in us with the third quarter.”

Those mid-game sprees set up another mercy-rule finish for the Bearettes, who are now 10-0 against the Lady Hurricanes (15-14).

The Lady ‘Canes placed Madison Hayes, Dezah Lacy and Elizabeth Laboo – all freshmen – on the all-tournament team.

“Maybe that says something about our future,” Gremore said.

Bradley and East Hamilton will host Region 3-3A games on Friday with both games starting at 7 p.m.

The Bearettes take on Cookeville (17-13), a 64-63 loser to White County in the District 6-3A consolation game. East Hamilton entertains White County (22-9).

Bradley will be appearing in its 35th consecutive region tournament and 59 times in 60 years. The only time the Bearettes missed out was in 1984 when Cleveland upset them 43-41. It was the Lady Blue Raiders’ third win that season.

East Hamilton actually led the Bearettes early at 8-7, but when the first period ended Bradley was on top 17-12.

The Lady ‘Canes trailed 22-19 after two Hayes free throws midway through the second quarter. That’s when Bradley went on the 15-1 run, which was triggered by four quick buckets in a 1-minute, 38-second span, including 3-pointers by reserve Kimia Carter and Howard.

“When Carter comes off the bench with her defense and slashing offensive style we definitely don’t lose anything,” said Reuter, who has directed Bradley to the tournament title in each of his seven seasons.

Said Carter, “It just shows that all that practice wasn’t for nothing. It makes me feel good when (Reuter) says those things. I’m doing pretty good playing my role and I’ve never done this before.”

Emma Kate Brown, bothered by a bad back, hit a 3 at the buzzer to give the Bearettes the 37-20 lead. The ball hit the rim, bounced high and then dropped through the net.

“That 3 gave us a lot of momentum going into halftime,” Reuter said. “In the third quarter, we wanted to land the knockout blow.”

It was a sledgehammer shot to the gut – East Hamilton was outscored 25-8 – and buried the Lady ‘Canes.

The shock-and-awe performance produced a 48-26 advantage over the first three minutes of the quarter. Hughes, who had six first-half points, started heating up with a 3 in the early spurt.

Sydney Morgan and Hughes then connected on back-to-back 3-pointers, Howard dropped in two free throws, Morgan knocked down a bucket and Carter hit 1-of-2 free throws. The Bearettes enjoyed a 59-26 lead that point.

“You could definitely tell they were tired,” Hughes said. “Teams usually hit the fatigue mark with about two minutes left in the third quarter.

“Now we get to play our first region game at home and that’s a huge advantage for us. Our goals before the season were to host the region and sub-state and get to the state tournament.”

Bradley has a 38-game home-court winning streak.

"East Hamilton played us well for a while, but at no time did we panic," Reuter said. "We probably shouldn't have doubled the score on them, but they were playing us hard and we just got our offense going. It was a great effort by our girls and I'm proud of them."

LINESCORES

Girls Championship

East Hamilton                      12 8 8 12 – 40

Bradley Central                   17 20 25 19 – 81

East Hamilton (40) – Lacy 8, Scott, Madison Hayes 11, Gray 2, Zeh 2, Patton, Suttles 6, Petitt 3, Abernathy 3, Laboo 5.  

Bradley Central (81) – Halle Hughes 16, Brown 3, Morgan 9, Rhyne Howard 24, McRee 8, Roberts 3, Koger, Kimia Carter 10, Mayo 1, Reuter, Davis, Hullender 3, Lombard, Walker 4.

3-Point Goals – East Hamilton 2 (Petitt 1, Abernathy), Bradley Central 10 (H. Hughes 3, Morgan 2, Howard 2, Brown 1, Roberts 1, Carter 1).

Girls Third-Place

McMinn County                    8 6 11 9 – 34

Walker Valley                       14 12 18 10 – 54

McMinn County (34) – Harper, Walker, Liner 4, Barns 7, Kaitlyn Hennessee 10, Whitney Green 10, Manney 2, Schiestel, Baxter, Gleaton 1.

Walker Valley (54) – Nipper 5, Patel, Davis 9, Walker 7, Kile, Knipp, Anderson 8, Lauren Lay 15, Clark 8, Baker, Fowler 2, Gibson.

3-Point Goals – McMinn County 2 (Walker 1, Green 1), Walker Valley 4 (Clark 2, Lay 1, Walker 1).

All-Tournament Team

Bradley Central – Rhyne Howard (MVP), Halle Hughes, Kailey McRee, Sydney Morgan

East Hamilton – Madison Hayes, Elizabeth Laboo, Dezah Lacy

Walker Valley – Lauren Lay, Abby Davis

McMinn County – Caitlyn Hennessee, Whitney Green

Cleveland – Sofia Stamatiadis

Ooltewah – Annalee Cline

Soddy-Daisy – Alexis Trimiar

Tuesday’s Schedule

Boys

Consolation Game

Bradley Central vs. Walker Valley, 6 p.m.

Championship Game

East Hamilton vs. East Hamilton, 7:30

(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)

Halle Hughes (1) of Bradley Central gets a pass to teammate Kimia Carter during the team's win against East Hamilton on Monday. The Bearettes won 81-40 and captured their seventh straight District 5-3A tournament title.
Halle Hughes (1) of Bradley Central gets a pass to teammate Kimia Carter during the team's win against East Hamilton on Monday. The Bearettes won 81-40 and captured their seventh straight District 5-3A tournament title.
photo by Dennis Norwood
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