CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- The Warren County girls basketball team is probably ready to play someone else rather than Bradley Central in the Region 3-4A basketball tournament.
For the seventh straight time, the Bearettes have ended the season for the Lady Pioneers in the tournament opening round.
Monday night in “The Jim” at Bradley Central, the Bearettes (30-1) blew a 16 point first half lead, but held strong during a Warren County (22-9) second half charge to earn a sub-state berth with a 61-53 win over the Pioneers.
The win sets up another cross town rivalry battle between the Cleveland Lady Raiders and Bearettes for the region championship Wednesday. Cleveland eliminated Coffee County 50-37 in the semifinals closer.
Win or lose, the Bearettes and Lady Raiders earned a sub-state berth Saturday. The region will will stay home while the loser will travel.
“They played a tough schedule. They've lost eight games, but every game they've lost has been to ranked teams in the state. They played really hard,” said Bearettes head coach Jason Reuter. “Our kids played really hard. If you had told me today we would win by one I would have said, 'I'll take it.'”
The Bearettes had a good night from the field hitting 21 of 40 shots and matched that effort from the free-throw line dropping 14 of 20 tries.
The only blemish of the night was Bearettes rebounding. The Lady Pioneers puled down 22 offensive boards to Bradley's 11 and were just one behind defensively, 12-11.
Kimora Fields kept up her amazing run scoring a game-high 23 points for the Bearettes. But, it didn't stop there as Harmonie Ware popped in 15 an Avary Brewer reached double figures with 12.
Warren County's Shelby Smartt ended her season on a high note with 21 points for the Lady Pioneers followed by Mia Hobbs with 14.
The Bearettes, as they have all season looked as if it would be an early night as they ran to a 19-10 first quarter lead and bullied their way to a 35-19 lead at halftime.
The third quarter is when the Lady Pioneers came to life. Down by 16 to open the third quarter, Warren County pounded the boards to out rebound the Bearettes. The Lady Pioneers became the bullies turning rebounds into points piling in 17 points while holding Bradley to only eight cutting the Bearettes lead to 43-36 to begin the final eight minutes.
“The only complaint you will will hear from me is defensive rebounding. We got flat footed,” said Reuter.
Not ready to end their season, the Lady Pioneers cut the lead to 53-48 with 2:21 left in the game. The Bradley girls slowed down the pace as the clock wound down forcing Warren County to sed the Bearettes to the free-throw line as the clock counted down. Harmonie Ware lifted in four tosses while Brewer finished up for the Bearettes with a pair of free throws so seal the win.
“We did some good things early. We went into halftime, we were up 16. I couldn't ask for a whole lot more than that. We didn't turn the ball over much tonight, we had nine they had 12. We shot the ball pretty good, 52.5%. And we were 70% from the foul line,” said Reuter.
“I'm proud of my girls. You ask any team in state tonight in the region semifinals if they'd take an eight point win and I'd say they'd take it. I can't worry about anything else but our team right now. Warren County, hats off to them. The fought really, really hard. They had a great year and they've had a good run. I'm proud of my girls, we'll take it. We got out of it without any injuries and we'll move on,” said Reuter.
“There is always room for improvement. We're in the region finals, now we're down to 16 teams in your class. We've got the region finals here, we've got one day to get ready. We're going to play another top-notch team Wednesday.”
Lady Raiders 50, Lady Red Raiders 37: The Cleveland Lady Raiders led from start to finish against Coffee County to set up a head-to-head matchup with the Bradley Central Bearettes for the Region 3-4A championship Wednesday.
Paige Moody and Lauren Hurst held the hot hand for Cleveland with both Lady Raiders booking 15 points apiece. Tyria Tanner did the job for Clevelad ith q4 points.
Chloe Gannon piled in 15 for Coffee County while Emaligh Tarpley finished with 11.
The Cleveland Lady Raiders (27-10) had a good nigh from the field hitting just short of 43% from the floor while easing in 70% from the free-throw line dropping in 19 of 27 tries. Cleveland was good for 7 of 16 from behind the 3-point line for 43%.
Cleveland led 12-7 after the first eight minutes and built a 21-13 lead at halftime.
Offensive was scarce for both teams in the third quarter as the Lady Raiders added just five points while Coffee County (30-3) produced nine as Cleveland held on to a 24-15 lead headed into the final eight minutes.
The Lady Raiders woke up in a big way in the fourth piling in 24 points to clinch a shot at the region championship.
Summaries
WARREN CO. 10 9 17 17 — 53
BRADLEY CENTRAL 19 16 8 18 — 61
WARREN CO. (53) — Shelby Smartt 21, Mia Hobbs 14, Perkins 9, Sab. Winfree, Sav. Winfree 4, Kelsey 5, Verge.
BRADLEY CENTRAL (61) — Kimora Fields 23, Harmonie Ware 15, Avary Brewer 12, Carpente 3, Jones 8, Wilcox, Swick.
3-point goals: Warren County 7 (Smartt 4, Perkins, Hobbs, Kelsey); Bradley Central 5 (Brewer 2, Ware 2, Carpenter).
Records: Warren County 22-9; Bradley Central 30-1.
COFFEE CO. 7 6 9 15 — 37
CLEVELAND 12 9 5 24 — 50
COFFEE CO. (37) — Chloe Gannon 15, Emaligh Tarpley 11, Reuhling, Vinson 2, Reel 4, Chan. Gannon 5, McIntosh, Gray, Patton, Sartai, Arnold.
CLEVELAND (50) - Tyria Tanner 14, Paige Moody 15, Lee 2, Lauren Hurst 15, Williams 3, A Hurst 1, Smith, Westfield, Brewer, T Rodriguez, I Rodriguez.
3-point goals: Warren County 0; Cleveland 7 I(Moody 4, Tanner, Williams).
Records: Coffee County 30-3; Cleveland 27-10.