CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Bradley Central’s Bearettes are not ready to relinquish their stranglehold on District 5-3A girls’ basketball.
Especially, not to bitter rival Cleveland.
The Bearettes (15-2, 4-0) ran roughshod over the Lady Blue Raiders, 59-39, Friday night at Raider Arena and continued their dominance of the rivalry, winning for the 20th time in 21 games.
Bradley has won eight straight in the series.
“We call came to the JV game and seeing how our girls played motivated us and we knew what we had to do tonight,” said junior post Anna Walker, who had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. “Cleveland played down a few people (varsity regulars) and that got to us. Seeing that and how our girls handled it really got us ready to play.”
The Lady Blue Raiders, who had two players back that had been suspended, fell to 9-11 overall and 3-1 in district play. Friday’s loss knocked Cleveland out of a share of first place.
In the boys’ varsity nightcap and in front of an estimated 3,000 fans jammed into the arena, Cleveland’s Blue Raiders (14-4, 2-2) used a strong third quarter to build on a nine-point halftime advantage and raced to a 68-48 victory, denying Bradley coach Chuck Clark his 100th win in six seasons.
Along with the important district win, Cleveland also claimed the championship in its own Holiday Classic last week. The two coaches agreed not to play one another in the classic and save the showdown for Friday night.
Cleveland has now won six straight games and nine out of the last 10.
“A lot of things go into this game,” said Cleveland coach Jason McCowan, now 15-14 against the Bears in 12 seasons. The Raiders have beaten the Bears (8-6, 1-3) four straight times. “I thought won played with passion and played within ourselves.”
Bradley girls 59, Cleveland 39: The Lady Raiders came out playing deliberate offensively. That didn’t last long. The Bearettes, who have won 59 straight games against district opponents, including district and region tournaments, quickly turned up the pace and raced to a 14-2 lead. Cleveland’s Kaitlyn Goodman hit a 3 with 4.2 seconds on the clock to slightly close the gap.
“Getting into a fast pace was important for us tonight,” said sophomore point guard Jamaryn Blair, who was named to the Nike Tournament of Champions all-tournament team in Phoenix, Arizona, on Dec. 22. “When you play fast the other team might not be used to it and they don’t know how to guard it. For us to keep pushing the tempo was a good thing.”
Blair finished with 12 points on 5-of-13 shooting.
When Hannah Lombard hit a 3 with 2:44 left in the second quarter, the Bearettes’ lead was 27-10. Walker’s 3 at the four-second mark gave Bradley a commanding 32-17 halftime advantage.
“Looking at film this week while preparing for Cleveland, we knew we’d have an advantage on the inside,” Walker said. “So, me and Alexis Barnes had to be strong in the post.”
Barnes had seven points on 3-for-3 shooting and six rebounds.
Bradley, which leads the Cleveland series, 103-37, shot extremely well and didn’t give the Lady Raiders much of a chance to catch-up in the second half. The Bearettes had a comfortable 48-27 cushion after three quarters and then threw the hammer down starting the final period.
Bradley scored 11 straight points – Walker, Kaleigh Hughes and Blair knocked down 3s and Walker added a layup – and extended the margin to 32 points, its biggest lead of the game.
“When we start off fast like we did to start the game,” said Hughes, who connected on 3 of 6 3-point attempts, “that’s good for us the rest of the game. We’ve gotten behind at times and we get down on ourselves. Getting ahead helps us play our entire game.”
After pushing the margin to 59-27 with 4:16 left, the Bearettes watched Cleveland score 12 straight points, including three straight 3s by Bailey Anderson, Madison Dasher and Goodman. Mariyah Person made a free throw and Joy Douglass added two charity tosses – five different players scored in the spurt – yet, the Lady Raiders still trailed 59-39 with less than a minute to play.
“We lost enthusiasm in the fourth quarter,” Bearettes coach Jason Reuter said, “but still won by 20 points. Most teams would be delighted to win against their cross-town rival by 20 points. It has been a concern of mine that we’re not finishing strongly even though I have veteran players out there. We’re spoiled at Bradley with the success we’ve had. I think the girls felt like they left a little out there tonight.”
Actually, not much.
The Bearettes shot 50 percent from 3-point distance (10 of 20). They shot 48.9 percent inside the arc (23 of 47). They outscored Cleveland 16-3 on turnovers; beat them in the paint by 24-16, 10-6 on second-chance opportunities, 12-0 on fast-break chances and the bench finished up 14-8.
“We shot the ball well, no question about it,” said Reuter, who is 20-1 against Cleveland and 248-31 overall in nine seasons. “Our average is 37 percent from the field, 2s and 3s. We’ve been winning a lot of games shooting 37 percent.
“As much as I chapped them, the game was never in doubt after the first quarter. I certainly felt Cleveland couldn’t catch us in the third quarter. We should have scored in the 60s, and we didn’t. I’ve got seniors turning the ball over with a 24-point lead. They’re acting like they’re JV players again. I’m hard to play for, but this isn’t about tonight. Everybody around here is chasing us; we’re chasing Riverdale. We’re trying to play for state championships. I ain’t coaching them to beat Cleveland. I’m coaching them trying to win a gold ball (state title trophy), which we haven’t won since 1976.”
The Lady Blue Raiders have lost their last two games by a combined 45 points. They lost to St. Joseph (West Virginia) in the holiday classic title game.
Cleveland is the last district team to beat Bradley, posting a 49-40 overtime win at Cleveland Middle School while the new arena was being built, on Dec. 12, 2014. Coach Tony Williams is 0-5 against Bradley and 36-39 overall in three seasons
Cleveland boys 68, Bradley Central 48: The Blue Raiders outscored the Bears, 10-5, to close the second period and take a 36-27 lead into halftime. Kley McGowan had four of those points and had 15 in the game, one of four players in double figures.
When Darius Howard scored on a put-back, Grant Hurst hit an acrobatic, off-balance bank shot and JaCobi Wood dropped in a layup, the Blue Raiders enjoyed a 42-27 lead with five-plus minutes left in the third period.
Wood led Cleveland with 20 points, Hurst added 16 and Isaiah Johnson tossed in 13.
Tray Curry paced Bradley with 14 points, eight in the final quarter, and Quante Berry tossed in 10.
Wood nailed a 3 from deep on the left wing and drove for a layup with 12.9 seconds left in the third period to give the Blue Raiders a 49-31 cushion.
Keeping Cleveland from scoring was Bradley’s primary problem.
“When you hold them to 92 percent shooting on twos, that’s not very good,” Clark said. “And we hold them to 62 percent for the game, so I’m not learning. They forced us to play their game from start to finish, and that’s not us. We were just throwing up stuff and that led to transition stuff.
“By running our sets, making the pass and a cut, roll of that and that would be us doing our thing. We couldn’t do that and that calls for a 20-point whuppin’.”
Cleveland kept pushing the tempo through the fourth period.
McGowan hit a right-wing 3 and the Blue Raiders’ lead was 52-33 early in the fourth. McGowan swished another 3 a little more than a minute later and Johnson’s layup stretched the margin to 59-38.
Cleveland’s lead hovered around 19 of 20 points the rest of the way.
“Our plan was to make them take some really tough shots,” McCowan said. “Hopefully, that would lead to some easy transition things. I didn’t think we were patient early in the game because we took some shots that made us look impatient. But it was satisfying to games with the kind of rhythm we had tonight.”
After playing just three of 14 games at home thus far, Bradley will host five of its final eight district games at Jim Smiddy Arena. Included in that at-home list are games against McMinn County, East Hamilton, Ooltewah, Cleveland and Walker Valley.
“I’ll glad to get home,” Clark said.
Scoring Summaries
Girls Game
Bradley Central 14 18 16 11 – 59
Cleveland 5 12 10 12 – 39
Bradley Central (59) – Kaleigh Hughes 13, Roberts, Jamaryn Blair 12, Anna Walker 17, Lombard 3, Reuter, Williams 4, Barnes 7, Mayo 3.
Cleveland (39) – Goodman 6, Dasher 5, Joy Douglass 8, Droke 5, Anderson 7, Mariyah Person 8, Rominger, Rouse.
3-Point Goals – Bradley Central 10 (Hughes 3, Blair 2, Walker 2, Lombard 1, Barnes 1, Mayo 1), Cleveland 5 (Goodman 2, Dasher 1, Droke 1, Anderson 1).
Boys Game
Bradley Central 14 13 4 17 – 48
Cleveland 19 17 13 19 – 68
Bradley Central (48) – Boyd 9, Clark 7, Tray Curry 14, Whaley, Ferguson 2, Wesley, Rothwell, McClary, McCleary 2, Greene 4, Smith, Davis, Quante Berry 10.
Cleveland (68) – Dale, Isaiah Johnson 13, Howard 3, JaCobi Wood 20, Grant Hurst 16, Colbaugh, Kley McGowan 15, Stum.
3-Point Goals – Bradley Central 4 (Boyd 3, Berry 1), Cleveland 6 (McGowan 3, Hurst 1, Wood 1, Johnson 1).
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)