Bearettes just a win away from title game
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — The Bradley Central girls basketball team advanced to the Class AAA state semifinals after holding off a late Dickson County rally to secure a 57-54 victory Wednesday in the Murphy Center at Middle Tennessee State University.
The Region 3-AAA champion Bearettes, who never trailed, shut out the Lady Cougars in the second quarter, using an 11-0 run to establish a 30-16 halftime advantage.
Bradley Central ( 32-3) will square off with Oak Ridge (284) in Friday’s 11 a.m. semifinal at MTSU. Dickson County finished the season 29-4.
“We had the big lead at halftime, but Dickson County certainly wasn’t going to go down without a fight,” Bradley Central coach Jason Reuter said. “We benefited from a couple of bad breaks going against them.
“I’m not going to apologize for the win, but they had to go to their bench earlier than they wanted because (Lea Lea) Carter had two fouls in the first quarter and picked up a couple more in the second half.”
And while Carter, a McDonald’s All-American, sat on the bench with four fouls, Lady Cougars junior Emily Beard, who finished with a team-high 15 points, picked up the slack, leading her squad’s 21- point third- quarter effort to draw within 42-37.
“It was very frustrating,” Carter said of Wednesday’s foul trouble. “It kind of got to me. I didn’t keep my composure at first. I’m used to being on the floor, and then being on
the bench is a whole different mindset.”
The Vanderbilt signee returned to the court with just more than six minutes remaining, burying back-to-back baskets to tie the game at 46 with 5:35 to play. Bradley Central’s Rhyne Howard answered with a 3-pointer 30 seconds later, but Dickson County knotted things up again a Cierra Smith 3-pointer.
Bradley Central went ahead 57-51 with 43 seconds remaining on a pair of free throws by Hallie Hughes, but a threepoint play by Kailey Rosenbaum helped Dickson County close the gap to 57-54.
The Lady Cougars had two 3- point attempts on their final possession but came up empty on both, and while Carter snagged a pair of offensive rebounds in the closing seconds, there wasn’t enough time to launch another shot from behind the arc.
“We’ve got an amazing tradition here — thousands of former Bearettes, 28 state tournament appearances — and those are the people we look to and we know we play for,” said Bradley Central junior Emma Brown, who led her team with 16 points.
Howard, a sophomore, added 13 points, three steals and a team- high 10 rebounds, and Julia Gaither had 14 points.