Having to go solo was no problem for the Bradley Central boys basketball team Tuesday as they completed a season sweep of District 6-4A foe Howard on Tuesday in the Scenic City.
With a decisive 77-40 road win, the Bears (15-8, 5-0) stay unbeaten and atop the district standings, with a final regular season showdown against East Hamilton (16-3, 4-1) set for Feb. 11.
The nationally-ranked Bearettes (23-1, 4-0) were denied a chance to extend their unbeaten district streak of 139 consecutive district wins after a Howard abruptly cancelled the girls’ game Monday The Lady Tigers fell to Bradley 104-11 when they met in early January.
Bradley will be back in action with a rare Saturday evening in a non-district tangle with archrival Cleveland with the state-ranked girls’ varsity scheduled for a 6 p.m. tipoff, inside Jim Smiddy Arena.
Howard is slated to play at Chattanooga Central Thursday.
BEARS 77, HUSTLIN' TIGERS 30: Tuesday’s game started with Bradley using a smothering full-court press to overwhelm Howard (2-19, 0-5) when they jumped to a 11-0 lead as the home team called time with barely a minute gone in the first quarter.
The quick timeout offered no relief as the Bears roared to a 31-5 lead after the first period.
The scoring frenzy continued in the second quarter with a 22-11 run, giving the Bears an insurmountable lead of 53-16 as they headed to the dressing room at halftime. Both teams netted 24 points in the second half.
Even with the lopsided win, "Papa Bear" Zach Carpenter mentioned they could have played better. “We cold have taken better care of the ball. Sometimes we dribbled into traffic instead of finding an open guy. Areas we’ve got to clean up.”
Senior Ramerion Taylor continued his recent torrid play with 19 points, a half dozen assists and a trio of steals to lead the Bear victory. He hit on 6-of-9 shots from the field, including all three of his long-range attempts.
Classmate Tyrese Stovall achieved another double-double with 12 points and 10 caroms, while rejecting three Hustlin’ Tiger shots and added three swipes to his night’s work.
Walters State signee Caiden Bauldwin found "four" to be his lucky number as he laid claim to four rebounds, assists, and steals as well and accounting for 13 points, drilling 6-of-9 shots from the field.
Senior Hunter Fields was also able to hit double digits with 10 points, sinking 3-of-4 field goals, including a couple of 3-balls, plus sinking both of his free throws.
Junior Tucker White came off the bench for a half dozen markers, going 4-for6 at the charity stripe.
No Bears were on the floor starting the second quarter due to the huge lead with Taylor the only player to log more than 16 minutes playing time. Every Bear that dressed played at least 10 minutes in the blow out win.
The Bear starters were impressive with their ball handling in the first half as they whipped passes to the open man.
“I thought we did a great job of finding the open man and our rebounding was very good (34-15),” commented Coach Carpenter.
“Every player that came in gave us a lot of energy. The bench was great all night,” he concluded as he noted the bench picked up 19 points for the game.
The stout Bear defense forced 27 turnovers that were converted into 33 points as they recorded 13 steals.
Surpassing the 70-point plateau for the seventh time this season, Bradley shot well in the road win as they hit 52.9% from the field (27-of-51), including seven shots from "distance" and had a solid 76.2% success rate from the free throw line by sinking 16-of-21.
Three Hustlin’ Tigers scored in double digits with Jessie Gladden and Larry Daniels nabbing 11 points apiece, plus Ant Fullilove 10.
GAME SUMMARY
District 6-4A
Tuesday, Feb. 4
at Chattanooga
Boys Game
Bradley Central 31 22 18 6 — 77
Howard Tech 5 11 15 9 — 40
BEARS (77) — Ramireon Taylor 19, Caiden Bauldwin 13, Tyrese Stovall 12, Hunter Fields 10, White 6, Cannon 4, Walker 4, Ary 4, A. Butts 2, Baggett 2, K. Butts.
HUSTLIN' TIGERS (40) — Jessie Gladden 11, Larry Daniels 11, Ant Fullilove 10, Ware 3, Kaloulkoa 3, Bradley 2, Davis, Green, Jones, Allen, Ray, Cruz.
3-POINTERS: BC 7 (Taylor 3, Fields, 2, Cannon, Ary); HT 2 (Daniels, Kaloulkoa).
FREE THROWS: BC 16-of-21 (76.2%); HT 6 of 17 (35.3%)
RECORDS: Bradley Central 15-8, 5-0 District 6-4A; Howard Tech 2-19, 0-5 District 6-4A.