CLEVELAND, Tenn. – High school basketball coaches always stress the idea of “survive and advance” in the early rounds of region tournaments, knowing that if you win, you advance. If you lose, the season is over.
That was literally the case for the Bradley Bearettes on Monday night at Jim Smiddy Arena for the Region 3-AAA semifinal battle with the Cookeville Lady Cavaliers.
It certainly wasn’t Bradley’s best game of the season, but in most sports, all you have to do is score one more point than the other team to win.
The Bearettes did just that as they eliminated Cookeville by a 50-49 margin in overtime.
The Lady Cavaliers end an outstanding season at 19-10.
Turns out that the second of two free throws by senior Anna Muhonen with four seconds left in overtime turned out to be the difference in the game.
Bradley hasn’t had many close games this season like the one on Monday night. They beat Stewarts Creek in double overtime early in the year, but the Bearettes were challenged like never before in this latest contest.
Lesser teams would have folded their tent and lost, but the Bearettes refused to go down in this one. Fortunately, they were able to survive and advance.
Bradley will host Stone Memorial in the Region final on Wednesday in a battle of district champions after the Lady Panthers beat White County by a 51-44 final in the other semifinal on Monday.
Bradley coach Jason Reuter had a serious talk with his girls at the halftime break when the Bearettes were on the short end of a 33-25 score. The conversation must have hit home because his girls turned things around in the second half.
“Games like that will make an old man out of a coach like me,” Reuter said shortly after exiting the Bradley dressing room at the end of the game.
“I’m just really proud of them for not flinching. We were down by eight at the break and things just weren’t going our way, so I asked them what it would take for us to win this game? The overwhelming response was defense and that was really the difference in the game.
“I really wasn’t expecting to be down like that at the half, but we had some girls do some things that were totally uncharacteristic of what we do. We went back to playing Bradley basketball in the second half and that was the key.
“We’re really blessed to win this game as both teams were battle-tested coming in. But we win and move on and we’ll take it,” the veteran coach concluded with a smile.
Bradley’s winning streak is now 23 games as the Bearettes improved to 25-1 with the slim victory, but the girls from Cookeville didn’t seem to be too impressed. They felt like they deserved to be playing in this round and they came to the Bradley gym expecting to win.
And they played like it too.
Bailey Gillies and Cassie Gallagher both sank 3s at the start as Cookeville led from the opening whistle.
Another long one by Jordan Gillies with 1:22 left in the quarter gave Cookeville its biggest lead of seven points at 15-8 while the difference was 16-11 when the first stanza ended.
Karsee Weber sank a 3 midway through the second period as Bradley knotted the score at 20-20, but it didn’t stay tied for long as Cookeville finished the half on a 13-5 run for that eight-point spread at intermission.
Reuter’s message about getting one stop at a time and playing solid defense in the second half came to pass as Bradley scored the first 11 points of the third quarter and led for the first time in the game at 34-33 following a layup by Hannah Jones with 3:08 showing.
Gallagher converted a three-point play just inside two minutes to knot the score at 36-36 before Kelsey Carman’s layup 12 seconds later allowed Bradley to hold a two-point lead with one quarter remaining.
Ashlan Crittenden hit the first of two free throws to start the last quarter to give Bradley’s its biggest lead at 39-36, but it was a battle the rest of the way as there were three ties and three lead changes in the final six minutes.
K.K. Graves sank two free throws with 3:42 left in regulation to give Cookeville a 46-44 lead while Muhonen hit two of four charity tosses to knot the score at 46 with just over two minutes remaining.
Both teams wanted to hold the ball for the last shot, but both had turnovers that prevented a final shot. Bradley had possession with 1:11 to play, but a steal by Jordan Gillies put the ball back in Cookeville’s hands.
Graves was working her way into the lane as the clock wound down, but was called for a double dribble with 1.4 seconds left. The Bearettes inbounded the ball as the horn sounded to end regulation play.
Bradley controlled the tip in overtime and worked the ball patiently before Carman swished a 3 from the wing with 2:40 to play.
Jordan Gillies did the same on a 25-footer from the key with 90 seconds to play.
Muhonen got fouled in the backcourt with four seconds to play and hit the second one to win the game.
Gallagher drove down the lane and got an off-balance shot that bounced off the rim as the horn sounded.
Cookeville coach Jamie Gillies felt like her team deserved better fate.
“I thought we played hard and well enough to win, but it’s tough to end a game like this on a foul call 80 feet away from the bucket,” she said after a lengthy talk with her girls.
“We had a good game plan and we did what we needed to do to win, but we just couldn’t pull it out at the end. I think we were the better team tonight, but us going most of the third quarter without scoring really hurt us.
“We knew we wouldn’t get many calls in this gym, but that run by Bradley in the third may have been the difference in the game,” she added.
Muhonen finished with 14 points to lead Bradley after scoring only three in the first half when she sat most of the second quarter with two fouls. Jones was also in double figures with 10 while Carman finished with eight.
Graves had 15 points to lead a trio of Lady Cavaliers in double figures. Gallagher was next with 14 while Jordan Gillies had 13.
Graves had 10 rebounds as Cookeville won the rebound battle, 26-25. Jones topped the Bearettes with eight.
Bradley ended the game by hitting 17 of 37 field goals for 45.9 percent, but were only three of nine from long range. And they only hit 13 of 22 free throws for a cool 59.1 percent.
Cookeville was 17 of 46 from the field for 37 percent and eight of 24 from long range for 33.3 percent. They also made seven of nine from the charity stripe for 77.8 percent.
The Bearettes will be at home Wednesday night to face Stone Memorial in the region finals. That game tips at 7:00 p.m.
SUMMARY
COOKEVILLE 16 17 3 10 3 -- 49
BRADLEY 11 14 13 8 4 -- 50
COOKEVILLE (49) – B. Gillies 3, Shipman 3, J. Gillies 13, Gallagher 14, Graves 15, Maynord, Webb 1, Cunningham.
BRADLEY (50) – Carpenter 6, Williams, Carman 8, Jones 10, Muhonen 14, Crittenden 7, Weber 3, Miles 2.
3-POINT GOALS: Cookeville 8 (B. Gillies, Shipman, J. Gillies 2, Gallagher, Graves 3); Bradley 3 (Carpenter, Carman, Weber).
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)