EVENSVILLE, Tenn. – East Hamilton trailed Stone Memorial, 51-45, with three minutes left in the third quarter of their Region 3-3A tournament game Monday night.
Over portions of the third and fourth quarters, the Lady Hurricanes, the No. 2 seed out of District 5-3A, scored 11 straight points and held the Lady Panthers scoreless for eight minutes to grab a five-point lead and kept their basketball season alive by holding on for a 67-62 semifinal victory.
“Wow,” East Hamilton coach Hunter Gremore said. “What a game. That was a battle and we knew it would be that way.”
The hard-earned victory moved East Hamilton (26-5) into Wednesday’s championship game against undefeated and second-ranked Bradley Central (30-0).
The Bearettes, who have won 62 of their last 63 games, easily defeated Rhea County, 74-43, and are looking for their 39th region championship after beating the Lady Golden Eagles for the 22nd straight time and 54 out of the last 55.
“They’re good and their record speaks for itself,” Rhea County coach Darvin Gill said. “As for Rhyne Howard, I don’t know how anyone would not consider her one of the top players in Tennessee and probably the Southeast.”
East Hamilton and Bradley also secured berths in the sectional round, which is just one win shy of reaching the state tournament. It will be the first Class 3A sectional, but they reached that plateau twice while competing in Class 2A in 2012 and 2013. They lost both times to Livingston Academy.
The boys’ semifinals are on center stage Tuesday night and East Hamilton’s Hurricanes will try to duplicate what the Lady Canes did when they take on Cookeville at 6 p.m. Stone Memorial plays Warren County at 7:45 p.m. The four teams are also vying for a spot in the finals and sectional berths.
“Triple-A is the best basketball in Tennessee,” Gremore said. “Tonight we got off to a fast start and then fell behind, but the girls never quit.
“Around Christmas last season, we were 3-10 and just started to chip away, won 13 of the next 16 and finished 16-14, with three of those losses to Bradley,” the Lady Canes’ coach said. “In every situation that we fell behind, the girls showed that desire and fight and that’s what we’ve hung our hats on this season. We don’t give up 62 points very often, but we don’t quit either.”
Ironically, the Lady Canes have fallen to the Bearettes three times this season, by nine, 27 and 31 points. The 31-point setback came in the District 5-3A championship game and the Lady Canes have never beaten Bradley in 12 tries.
“It’s going to be tough, but we’re one of 16 teams playing in triple-A,” Gremore said.
Junior Kaiyanna Suttles, who finished with 13 points, has the remedy for beating, who left the gymnasium with a 90-7 all-time record against Rhea County.
“If we can stop Rhyne Howard, their main attraction and hold everybody else down the whole game, we’ll have a good chance,” she said. “We’ve got to be ready for them.”
That hasn’t happened since last March when Stewarts Creek shocked the Bearettes, 55-49, at home to end their 32-game winning streak.
Sophomore Madison Hayes paced East Hamilton by scoring 27 points for the second straight game, and added eight rebounds, five assists and two steals. Suttles finished with 13 points and six rebounds. Eliziah Laboo, another sophomore, scored two of her eight points to cap the game-changing 11-0 run and also had six rebounds.
The Lady Panthers’ Tesa Johnson made two free throws to end the nearly eight minute scoring drought, but Carli Zeh, who had seven points, hit a free throw and Hayes made one to give the Lady Canes a 58-53 lead with 2:29 remaining.
Stone Memorial’s Mattie Buck countered with a field goal. DeZah Lacy hit a charity toss and Hayes dropped in a pair and the Lady Canes had a 61-58 advantage with 71 seconds on the clock.
Johnson connected twice from the charity stripe.
Suttles made two – the second attempt bouncing off and on the rim twice before falling – and Lacy, also a sophomore, drained two more free throws and the Lady Canes had another five-point lead at 65-60 with 10.6 seconds showing.
Stone’s Emma Capps was fouled by Hayes and made both tosses with 6.8 seconds on the clock. One second later, Hayes calmly swished two free throws to seal the five-point victory.
“Those eight minutes earlier in the game were crucial,” Hayes said. “We had to play tough defense and we turned it up a little bit. We were so focused in this game. We’re in our first sub-state, but we have to worry about Bradley next.”
After East Hamilton took a 20-9 first-quarter lead, the Lady Panthers used an 18-6 run to close the second period and pull to take a 38-36 lead into halftime.
In the opener, Bradley Central, which “mercy-ruled” their nine previous opponents, jumped out to a 23-10 lead and was up 43-17 at the half.
By that time senior Rhyne Howard already had 19 points and eight rebounds and the Bearettes shot 68 percent from the field. Howard went 10 for 13 from the floor and connected on 3-of-6 3-point attempts. Anna Walker added 10 points, all in the first half.
Howard finished with her 10th double-double of the season – 25 points and 11 rebounds –and notched the team’s only triple-double with 28 points, 10 rebounds and 10 steals against rival Cleveland on Jan. 30.
Jamaryn Blair once again came off the bench to scored 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting.
“I don’t always have to score so much,” said Howard, who added six second-half points to her halftime total. If I have a bad night or other girls are playing well, I give the ball to the other girls.”
Howard now has 2,428 career points, good for sixth place on the school’s all-time scoring list and just 12 behind No. 5 Brittany Jackson.
Bradley coach Jason Reuter pointed to the quick get-away as the key to Monday’s triumph, something the Bearettes have been doing all season.
“Our tendency all season has been to start fast,” he said. “That’s a big advantage. Once we got the big lead, we kept it 20-plus the rest of the game. Rhea had a pretty good third quarter and we were still playing good defense. When they’re hitting shots from 21 feet with a hand in their face, we tip our hats to them.
“I want this season to last forever. We all know the impact Rhyne Howard has on this team, but she won’t leave us empty handed.”
Bradley Central has put a lot of hurt on opposing teams in the first season this season, outscoring the foes 1,164 to 534.
The Bearettes, the winningest team, boys or girls, in TSSAA history with 2,195 victories and has an 81.8 winning percentage dating to 1922-23.
Mallory Hampton and Haley Camron each scored 12 points for the Lady Golden Eagles (25-7) and Micah Black added 11 points.
Rhea County made four of its eight 3-pointers in the third period, but still trailed 58-33 going into the fourth. The Bearettes outscored the Lady Golden Eagles, 9-2, to start the final period and stretched the margin to 67-35. Blair, a freshman, seven of the nine points and Anna Roberts got the other two to start the quarter.
The Bearettes’ inside game outscored Rhea, 34-8, in a punishing effort. Bradley outscored the Lady Golden Eagles 27-2 on 20 turnovers, Howard has four steals and Cambree Mayo three.
With Blair doing most of the damage, the Bearettes outscored Rhea’s bench, 25-0.
Boxscores
Rhea County 10 7 16 10 – 43
Bradley Central 23 20 15 16 – 74
Rhea County (43) – Haley Camron 12, Smith, Micah Black 11, Mallory Hampton 12, Welch 8, Taylor, Blevins, Swafford, Martin, Mathis, Cameron.
Bradley Central (74) – Hughes 9, Mayo 5, Rhyne Howard 25, Anna Walker 10, Lombard, Williams, Roberts 5, Reuter, Jamaryn Blair 14, Barnes 5, Carman, Hullender, Muhonen 1.
3-Point Goals – Rhea County 9 (Black 3, Camron 2, Hampton 2, Welch 2), Bradley Central 8 (Howard 3, Hughes 1, Mayo 1, Walker 1, Roberts 1, Barnes 1, Blair 1).
East Hamilton 20 16 14 17 – 67
Stone Memorial 9 29 13 11 – 62
East Hamilton (67) – Kaiyanna Suttles 13, Madison Hayes 27, Zeh 7, Abernathy, Laboo 8, Lacy 9, Mc. Hayes 3.
Stone Memorial (62) – Alex Eldridge 14, Tesa Johnson 12, Miller 3, Emma Capps 11, Boyd 6, Selby, Buck 8, Freitag 8.
3-Point Goals – East Hamilton 5 (Ma. Hayes 2, Zeh 2, Mc. Hayes 1), Stone Memorial 9 (Eldridge 3, Buck 2, Freitag 2, Miller 1, Capps 1).
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)