CLEVELAND, Tenn. – It was like the difference between daylight and dark at Bradley’s Jim Smiddy Arena Wednesday night.
The Bradley Bearettes had one of their worst shooting performances of the season in Monday’s Region 3-AAA semifinal against Cookeville, but somehow managed to pull out the one-point win in overtime.
It was a horse of another color less than 48 hours later as the Bearettes hosted the Stone Memorial Lady Panthers for the region championship and the right to play one more home game in the sectional round on Saturday.
As the old saying goes, the Bearettes were “feeling it” and there wasn’t anything anyone could do to stop them.
Shooting 67.7 percent from the field by hitting 21 of 31 shots and 10 of 13 from long range for a blistering 76.9 percent, it turned into a one-sided affair after the first quarter as Bradley improved to 26-1 with its 24th straight win.
And it wasn’t close as you might guess as the Bearettes rolled to a 60-36 victory.
“What a difference two nights make,” said Bradley coach Jason Reuter shortly after the impressive performance ended.
“Hitting 10 of 13 from long range is unheard of in high school basketball, but our shooting was definitely the difference in the game. I wish we could have saved a few of those for Saturday night, but every girl understood their role as it was a game of matchups.
“We started taking the air out of the ball at the end of the third quarter before we hit another 3 at the end, but the game was already over at that point,” the veteran coach added with a smile.
Speaking of matchups, Bradley’s Anna Muhonen was challenged with guarding Tessa Miller, a 6-1 senior who is a Miss Basketball finalist and has already commited to play at Belmont next year.
Miller scored one point in the first half and only four for the game as Muhonen played lights-out defense and made it virtually impossible for the Lady Panther standout to ever do anything. Muhonen only scored four points, but she had three assists and three huge blocks on Miller as Stone’s big girl was never a factor.
“They were saying that I wasn’t good enough to guard her, so I just went out and proved that I could,” Muhonen said after being named the MVP of the tournament.
“We knew that we were capable of playing so much better than we did Monday and we were confident that it wouldn’t be a repeat performance. But I’ve played AAU ball with Miller and I knew what she was capable of doing,” Muhonen smiled.
Stone Memorial coach Mike Buck didn’t offer any excuses for his team’s less-than-pleasing performance.
“Bradley played really well, but we just never showed up,” Buck said after exiting the Lady Panther dressing room.
“We got rattled early and didn’t stay focused on what our game plan was. And Tessa took a beating down low as she never got rolling, but there is very little about this game that I’m happy with. The best news is that we get to play again on Saturday,” he added.
Hannah Jones hit a layup with 3:50 left in the opening quarter as Bradley started the game on an 8-1 run.
Sloan Carpenter hit the second of two free throws for a 11-6 lead with 2:43 showing before the Lady Panthers got a 3 from Katie Adkisson and a layup from Kenry Malone to knot the score at 11-11 when the first quarter ended.
Adkisson started the second period with another 3 and Annah Goss hit one of her own two and a half minutes later as the Lady Panthers had their biggest lead at 17-13 with 5:15 left in the second, but Bradley’s Carpenter and Jamia Williams hit back-to-back 3s a little later for a 19-17 Bradley lead.
The Bearettes then scored 10 of the final 12 points as they headed to the dressing room feeling good and confident with a 29-22 lead at the break.
The two teams traded buckets to start the second half before Bradley sank five straight 3s for a commanding 46-26 lead with eight minutes remaining.
A free throw by Carpenter with 1:19 to play gave Bradley its biggest lead of 26 points at 60-34 before Amiah Graham sank two free throws in the last minute for the 24-point final margin.
Carpenter had the hottest hand for Bradley as she hit five of six from long range to finish with 19 points. Jones was also in double figures with 14 while Kelsey Carman and Williams both added eight points for the winners.
Goss was the only Lady Panther in double figures as she finished with a dozen points. Adkisson followed with nine after hitting three 3s.
While Bradley was shooting 67.7 percent from the field and 76.9 percent from long range, Stone Memorial hit just 12 of 31 shots from the field for 38.7 percent, including five of 11 from long range for 45.5 percent.
Stone Memorial is now 24-5 and will be on the road Saturday to face the Blackman-Oakland winner while Bradley will be at home for the last time to face the Region 4 runner-up.
STONE MEMORIAL 11 11 4 10 -- 36
BRADLEY 11 18 17 14 -- 60
STONE MEMORIAL (36) – Malone 5, Adkisson 9, Freitag 4, Miller 4, Goss 12, Dishman, Weaver, M. Hazleton, Guthrie, Graham 2, Houston, E. Hazelton.
BRADLEY (60) – Carpenter 19, Williams 8, Carman 8, Jones 14, Muhonen 4, Weber 3, Crittenden 4, Swick, Estrada, Falcon, Miles, Ledford.
3-POINT GOALS: Stone Memorial 5 (Adkisson 3, Goss 2); Bradley 10 (Carpenter 5, Williams 2, Carman 2, Weber).
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)