CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Making the most of their "Senior Night" celebrations several Bradley Central 12th-graders showed out Friday evening in blowout victories over visiting Knoxville Catholic, in Jim Smiddy arena.
The Bears were able to avenge an early season loss in dramatic fashion, routing the Fighting Irish 91-68, while the second-ranked nationally Bearettes continued to defend the home court with an 87-23 thrashing of the Lady Irish.
Bradley will now turn its attention to the postseason as the District 6-4A girls semifinals are set for Tuesday with the top-seeded Bearettes (26-1, 6-0 in District 6-4A) taking on host and fourth-seeded Howard at 6 p.m.
Also unbeaten in the district, the Bears (18-8, 6-0) will follow at 7:30 against No. 4 Ooltewah.
The winners of Tuesday’s games will await the Wednesday night semifinal victors between the girls of East Hamilton, the second seed, and third-seed Ooltewah, while the boys battle finds No. 2 seed East Hamilton battling third-seed Howard.
The winners of the Tuesday and Wednesday games will clash for the championship on Saturday evening at 6 (girls) and 7:30 (boys), while the semifinal losers will play in the consolation finals on Friday.
All four schools will advance to the Region 3-4A tournament starting Friday, Feb. 28.
First- and second-place teams from District 6-4A will host the third and fourth seeds from District 5-4A in the opening round before the region semifinals and finals will be at the home court of the District 5-4A champions.
BEARS 91, FIGHTING IRISH 66: The senior "Big 3" of the Bears were selected to the All-District team in the coaches' postseason meeting earlier in the day Friday and they showed exactly why the opposing coaches voted for them.
Chosen as the District Player of the Year for the second straight season, Walters State signee Tyrese Stovall’s padded the stat line with 29 points and 11 rebounds for another double-double.
He also drew 13 fouls and sank 11-of-17 free throws, while handing out three assists with a steal and three rejected shots.
His future running mate at Walters State, Caiden Bauldwin also recorded a double-double with 20 points and helped the Bears control the boards (46-26) with 13 ricochets. For good measure he handed out three "dimes" and had two steals.
Ramerion Taylor is undecided on a college choice, but his 22 points, including 5-of-6 from "downtown," with a half dozen assists, will continue to garner him attention.
The prolific trio combined for 71 of the Bear’s 91 points and accounted for 30 of the 46 rebounds.
The hot shooting Bears sank 55.0% of their shots (33-of-60), including 8-for-10 from long distance, with 17 makes in 30 attempts from the charity stripe.
The Fighting Irish (19-7) never knew what hit them as the Bears opened with one of their best shooting quarters of the season when they blitzed Catholic and led 27-10 after one period.
The Bears never let the lead fall under double digits and eventually stretched it to the final 25-point margin.
The Irish were missing their leading scorer after Cade Murphy, who went down with an injury in their Thursday game against McCallie. Murphy laid 40 points on the Bears in a 66-61 Irish win in early December.
However, Knox Catholic placed four players in double figures in what turned in a foul-plagued night for the visitors as three players ended the game "riding the pine" after fouling out.
They had four players in twin figures with Carson Asbaty hitting for 17, Juice Eleam 16, T.J. Tipton 12 and Brylen Gibbs 11.
“I thought we did a good job offensively. We did a good job on the glass with 16 offensive rebounds,” noted "Papa Bear" Zach Carpenter after the game.
“We had 18 assists and held down the turnovers (10) tonight. It was a good team to play to help us get ready for the district tournament next week at Howard.”
BEARETTES 87, LADY IRISH 23: Moving up to No. 2 in the national Hoops Review poll this week, Bradley (26-1) had one of its best shooting games of the year.
“We had a lot of points in the paint (58) and got a lot of points (37) off turnovers,” said District 6 Coach of the Year Jason Reuter.
Led by District Co-MVPs Harmonie Ware and Kimora Fields, the Bearettes were red hot with a 66.1% shooting night as they connected on 37-of-56 attempts from the field.
None were hotter than Ware, who sank 14-of-15 shots, with a 3-pointer and a perfect 4-for-4 free tosses for a career-high 33 points. The Arkansas signee also cleared the backboards for three rebounds and had four assists.
She had plenty of support with Fields, a two-time Miss Tennessee Basketball finalist and three-time District Player of the Year, chipping in 20 points and six rebounds in just over 19 minutes of playing time.
Kennesaw State signee TaTianna Stovall, who was honored for having scored the 1,000th point of her career before the game, hitting for 12 points with nine rebounds leaving her just shy of another double-double. She also dished out five "dimes" and copped a trio of thefts.
Samford signee Avary Brewer dropped in a half dozen points, plus handed out six helps and swiped a pair of steals. Walters State signee Malia Wilcox dealt out five assists.
Junior Abby White came off the bench to hit 3-of-4 shots, including a couple from long distance, for eight points, while handing out three helps, grabbing a pair of caroms and a theft.
The Bearettes dominated the glass with 32 rebounds against just 15 for the Lady Irish (17-14).
Bradley led just 18-10 after the first quarter, but went on an 18-point run in the second period as they outscored the Lady Irish by 30-6 to lead 48-16 at the half.
“We shot really well tonight and it was a good game to end the regular season, but now we move on to the district tournament," assessed Coach Reuter, who is only three wins away from 450 in his 15th year as "Papa Bear."
"Even though it was 'Senior Night,' we are not expecting it to be our last home game this year," he said in reference to hopefully a Region 3 opener and TSSAA Sectional games at Smiddy Arena. "We gave up 10 points in the first quarter, but just 13 in the final three (quarters),” he concluded.
The Lady Irish, like their boys’ team, were down their leading scorer after an injured Amaya Redd watched the game in street clothes. Maggie Frana was the only KC player with more than three points, netting 11.
“We have accomplished some of the goals we set at the beginning of the year and now we have the next goal of a district tournament championship,” Reuter concluded.
GAME SUMMARIES
Friday, Feb. 14
at Jim Smiddy Arena
Girls Game
Knox Catholic 10 6 5 8 — 23
Bradley Central 18 30 23 16 — 87
LADY IRISH (23) — Maggie Frana 11, English 3, Walker 3, Perry 3, Lucier 2, Minefield 1, Swain, Bellhausen, Drazkowski, Cook, Belland, Duncan.
BEARETTES (87) — Harmonie Ware 33, Kimora Fields 20, TaTianna Stovall 12, Abby White 8, Avary Brewer 6, Addie Geren 5, Stewart 3, Wilcox, Osborn, Schultz, Broome, Rymer.
3-POINTERS: KC 3 (Frana, English, Walker); BC 5 (White 2, Ware, Geren, Stewart).
FREE THROWS: KC 2-of-4 (50.0%); BC 8-of-13 (61.5%).
RECORDS: Knoxville Catholic 17-14; No. 1 (4A) Bradley Central 26-1.
Boys Game
Knox Catholic 10 15 24 19 — 68
Bradley Central 27 16 23 25 — 91
FIGHTING IRISH (68) — Carson Asbaty 17, Juice Eleam 16, T.J. Tipton 12, Brylen Gibbs 11, Gainey 6, Bartolomew 6, Garcia, Lively, Mitsu, Schuler.
BEARS (91) — Tyrese Stovall 29, Ramerion Taylor 22, Caiden Bauldwin 20, Antonio Butts 5, Carson Asbaty 17, Juice Eleam 16, T.J. Tipton 12, Brylen Gibbs 11, Gainey 6, Bartolomew 6, Garcia, Lively, Mitsu, Schuler.K. Butts 4, Goldston 4, Walker 4, Fields 3, Ary, Cannon, Cassada, White, Baggett.
3-POINTERS: KC 5 (Bartolomew 2, Gibbs, Eleam, Asbaty); BC 8 (Taylor 5, Bauldwin, A. Butts, Fields).
FREE THROWS: KC 15-of-20 (75.0%); BC 17-of-30 (56.7%).
RECORDS: Knoxville Catholic 19-7; Bradley Central 18-8.
All-District 6-4A Teams
Girls Team
Bradley Central: Kimora Fields (Co-MVP), Harmonie Ware (Co-MVP), TaTianna Stovall, Avary Brewer, Malia Wilcox; East Hamilton: Kailey Hilvers, Ariana Calhoun, Alexis Price; Ooltewah: Allie Tipton, Aleigha Taylor; Howard: Courniya Robinson.
Coach of the Year: Jason Reuter (Bradley Central)
Boys Team
Bradley Central: Tyrese Stovall (MVP), Ramiron Taylor, Caiden Bauldwin; East Hamilton Myles Willingham, Payton Harris, Donnovan Harris, Josiah Wiley, Wiley Thomas; Howard: Jesse Claddon, Anthony Fullilove, Larry Daniels; Ooltewah: Thomas Marsh.
Coach of the Year: Howard Pride (East Hamilton)