Bradley's Anna Muhonen (43) guards Meioshe Mason (40) of Lebanon in their state quarterfinal contest Thursday afternoon at MTSU's Murphy Center. The Bearettes fell, 36-35, in a heartbreaking loss to the Devilettes.
photo by Joseph Dycus
Time was running out.
Adde Porter had the ball on the right side for just a beat before she violently crossed back over to her left. With only a few seconds left and Lebanon trailing by one, she needed to make something happen. So she drove to the elbow and then suddenly stopped her momentum in order to get space for a shot.
A few milliseconds later, that midrange floater broke the hearts of every Bradley Central fan, player, and coach as it went straight through the twine and gave the Blue Devils a 36-35 win in the state quarterfinals.
The Bearettes’ last second heave from 35 feet away was no good, and for the second time in the last three tournaments, Lebanon knocked Bradley Central out of the playoffs.
“Whatever the defense showed was what I was going to do,” Porter said. “If they’d helped out, I would’ve had the dump off and if they’d slid in I would have kicked out for the three, so I was just playing off instincts. You can’t think of all the shots you’ve made or missed, it’s just about that shot and you have to live in the moment.”
The first half was anything but a shootout, or if it was a shootout, then it was an inaccurate one. After Lebanon’s Avery Harris knocked down two free throws, neither team scored for the next four minutes. Bradley Central couldn’t even score a point until the majority of the quarter had been whittled away.
It wasn’t for lack of effort, as Bradley Central repeatedly did their best to free Anna Muhonen and Kelsey Carman for open shots at the elbows and layups, but their shots just were not falling. Much of that had to do with Lebanon’s Meioshe Mason, who was a Tim Duncan-esque presence inside in the first half.
She was credited for only two blocks during the half, but she also influenced at least half a dozen others as she swung her long arms around and moved with purpose around the paint. Bradley Central did have some success on the fastbreak in the first quarter, with Jamia Williams and Muhonen both getting layups after they were able to outrace Mason.
However, that fast paced style disappointed in the second quarter, with the Bearettes only able to muster up a single layup in that frame. Granted, it was a beautiful move in the post where Syler Falcon spun over to her right shoulder and threw in a hook over Mason. It was a little bit of revenge, as Mason had pulled off a similar pirouette in the post a few seconds before.
Even though Porter had a tough shooting start, she ran off a screen with confidence and popped free for a triple from the wing. From there she aligned herself with the basket and threw in three points to give Lebanon a 14-9 halftime lead. The minuscule score was fitting for a game that saw the two teams combine to shoot 8-45 in the first half.
Bradley Central’s offense began to percolate in the third and put up 12 in eight minutes after only mustering nine in the previous 16. Muhonen was the linchpin of the attack, which might sound odd as she only made one of 12 shots from the field. However, her passing from the high post was sublime, and because she was so far away from the basket, that meant Mason was taken out of the paint.
“Playing with Anna has been a special experience, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” Carman said. “It’s been special. Four years I will never get back but will never forget.”
The Bearette’s went on an 11-0 tun in the third as Muhonen provided a steady stream of pinpoint passes from the elbow to interior cutters like Carman or shooters like Sloan Carpenter, who came off a screen for a corner three midway through the quarter. Even when those dimes did not lead to assists, they still produced free throws that whittled away at, and then surpassed, Lebanon’s lead.
“We knew different matchups would work differently, so putting me In the post and running our flex differently worked well for us,” Carman said. “We knew what we were looking for and down low was working for us.”
The fourth was a slew of big plays and clutch free throw shooting. After struggling to find a rhythm all afternoon, Porter came alive and suddenly could not make a wrong play. She started by snaking along the baseline, drawing help, and then dropping off a perfect pocket pass to Harris for her only basket of the day. After Muhonen used her passing skills to pick out Williams for a cutting basket, Reynolds made two freebies to take back the lead.
After going several minutes without either team being able to change digits on the scoreboard, Williams made a quick hit-ahead pass to Carman for a layup that gave Bradley Central the 26-25 lead. That’s when the offense became Addie Porter vs Bradley Central, with Porter scoring or assisting on Lebanon’s last 11 points of the game. After Muhonen stuffed a teammates shot and sent it screaming back, Porter calmly collected it and drained a three.
She then hit Terri Reynolds for a quick scoop layup on the fastbreak, and then drove into the paint and split a pair of free throws, thus giving Lebanon a 30-26 lead. Carman answered with two perfect free throws of her own which was followed by two more Porter shots from the stripe to push the lead back to four.
For a second, it looked like Weber would be the star of the game when she ran off a screen to the corner and arched in a rainbow to cut the lead to one. Then Williams, as the smart defensive player that she is, had the wherewithal to strip Porter of the ball when trapping, and gave Bradley Central a 33-32 lead.
Porter answered with her final two free throws and retook the lead for her team, on a foul that took Muhonen out of the game. With Muhonen no longer an option, Carman instead took the role as the high-post passer. She rubbed off a screen and got the ball up top, and waiting for someone to get free. That someone was Weber, who was unnoticed on the baseline until she received fireball from Carman and plopped in a layup to put Bradley Central on top 35-34.
“When you see the kids putting together what we practice, that’s part of the reason we’re in this business,” coach Reuter said. “It’s very fulfilling to see kids do that. I think our gameplan was spot on and that last play was a testament to a bunch of girls working together, like the orchestra or ballet or a play or whatever.”
However, Bradley Central would not hold onto that lead and Porter’s coldblooded shot making pushed Lebanon to the semi-finals. Even after such a tough loss, coach Reuter had nothing but praise for his players, who had battled all night.
“I want to go in there and cry like a baby, because these kids played so hard for us,” coach Reuter said. “They played as hard as they could. They showed a lot of resolve.”
With the game and her high school career over, an emotional Anna Muhonen looked back at her career, which included struggles with injuries, triumphs in the playoffs, and dozens of wins and great memories.
“There was never a day that I didn’t want to go to practice, and I knew I was going go in there and we were going to work, and that I was going to be surrounded by a bunch of people with the same mindset as me and wanted it just as bad and would give everything they had to win.”
“Being at Bradley, it’s a special place and I don’t think there’s anywhere like it. I would not trade these four years for anything.”
SUMMARY
BRADLEY 7 2 13 13 - 35
LEBANON 5 9 7 15 - 36
BRADLEY (35) – Carpenter 3, Williams 4, Kelsey Carman13, Jones 2, Muhonen 4, Crittenden, Weber 7, Miles, Falcon 2.
LEBANON (36) – Reynolds 8, Barr, Addie Porter 14, Harris 4, Mason 4, Rankins, Tomlin 6, Jennings.
3-POINT GOALS: Bradley 3 (Carpenter, Carman, Weber); Lebanon 3 (Porter, Tomlin 2).
Records: Bradley 27-2; Lebanon 29-5.
(Contact the author at joseph.a.dycus@gmail.com)