McCurdy's Clutch 3 Leads Bears Past Blue Raiders, 65-62

Hot-Shooting Bearettes Blow Out Lady Raiders, 78-40

  • Saturday, January 24, 2015
  • Larry Fleming
A packed house of 2,500 people watched bitter rivals Cleveland and Bradley Central clash Saturday. Bradley's girls won 78-40 and the Bears toppled the Blue Raiders, 65-62.
A packed house of 2,500 people watched bitter rivals Cleveland and Bradley Central clash Saturday. Bradley's girls won 78-40 and the Bears toppled the Blue Raiders, 65-62.

CLEVELAND, Tenn. – First place in District 5-AAA was up for grabs Saturday when bitter rivals  Cleveland and Bradley Central – both boys and girls – squared off at Jim Smiddy Arena.

The Bearettes seized it.

The Bears scrambled atop the standings as well.

Bradley Central, scoring eight points in the final 35.9 seconds, including Bradley McCurdy clutch 3-pointer, rallied past the Blue Raiders, 65-62, in a gut-wrenching thriller that had the capacity crowd of 2,500 on its collective feet down the home stretch.

Bradley’s hot-shooting Bearettes, who dropped a 49-40 overtime decision to the Lady Blue Raiders on Dec.

12, turned the return match into a 78-40 blowout by shooting 62 percent from the field.

“I think the Bearettes made a statement tonight,” fifth-year coach Jason Reuter said of his “young pups.”

McCurdy’s dramatic 3-pointer is something that’s crossed his mind multiple times before.

“I dreamed that a hundred times,” McCurdy said. “Right when it left my hands I was hyped because I knew it was going in.”

McCurdy’s shot, launched from dead in the right corner with an on-rushing Cleveland defender bearing down on him, hit nothing but net.

“He didn’t hesitate on that shot,” Bears coach Chuck Clark said. “He felt it. That was huge. You have to have players make plays in a game like this.”

The victory avenged a 50-45 loss to Cleveland on Dec. 12 and gives the Bears a 14-7 overall record and more importantly an 8-1 mark in district play, half a game clear of the Blue Raiders (12-7, 7-1).

The Bears have three league games remaining with Ooltewah, Soddy-Daisy and the regular-season finale at East Hamilton.

“This was a momentum builder for us,” Clark said. “When you come back after losing the motor to your team (point guard Ty Morgan suffered a first-quarter ankle injury), you have to adjust and we did that. We also made some shots at the end.”

The Blue Raiders, coming off Tuesday’s stunning 30-point loss to Red Bank, wind up playing East Hamilton, Walker Valley, McMinn County and Ooltewah.

Daniel Clark paced the Bears with 21 points, McCurdy tossed in 15, Tucker Maroon had 13 and Cole Copeland 12. Clark poured in 14 points and McCurdy added 11, including three 3-pointers, in the second half.

The Bears led early 11-8, but played from behind until two minutes deep into the fourth quarter when McCurdy, a 6-foot-1-inch junior, made two free throws for a 51-51 lead. The Blue Raiders answered with a Jake Gibson 3 and a driving, over-the-head layup by Cantrel Ware to re-establish a lead at 56-52.

Clark, a senior, dropped in a driving layup following a teammates’ steal, but Cleveland senior Rod Dennard made back-to-back layups and the Blue Raiders had a 60-54 cushion with 3:02 remaining.

Clark came back with one free throw and a layup to pull the Bears to within 60-57. After a Cleveland turnover, Clark scored on another layup with 35.9 seconds on the clock.

Eleven seconds later, Gibson scored and 7.1 seconds after that Clark scored, giving him nine consecutive points and the Bears were within 62-61 at the 17.4-second mark.

Gibson missed the front end of a one-and-one and the Bears quickly got the ball down court.

“Daniel drove the middle and I expected him to go up because he’s been finishing well. They doubled him and he kicked it out to me,” McCurdy said. “It was a do-or-die shot and I hit it. That gives you a great feeling because we’re (leading the district) because (Cleveland) hasn’t played as many games as we have.

“It’s good to be back on top where we were picked in preseason.”

Said Cleveland coach Jason McCowan of McCurdy’s shot to the Raiders’ gut: “That was a big shot to take and make.”

Gibson had a chance to tie the game with 4.3 seconds left, but missed on another one-and-one situation.

Clark made one last field goal for the final three-point lead.

“We gave ourselves a great chance to win the basketball game,” Cleveland coach Jason McCowan said, “especially getting a double-digit lead (33-23) going into halftime. We had some empty possessions when we took some questionable shots in the fourth quarter. I think we let the emotions of a big game get to us.

The Bears, who hit 62 percent of their field goals and 10-of-17 from 3-point distance, led 11-8, but Cleveland scored 10 straight points – six by T.J. Constant, who scored just eight in the game – to grab a lead they kept for the next 18 minutes of play.

With 1:11 left in the opening period, Morgan, the Bears’ senior floor general, went down near mid-court with his game-ending injury. He was helped off the court by Bears athletic director Turner Jackson and the team trainer and did not return. At game’s end Morgan left the arena on crutches.

The injury caused coach Clark some consternation.

“It changed our perspective on everything,” he said. “We had to change all our substitution patterns and who would guard the other team’s best player, which is usually Ty’s assignment. He plays just about every position and for Ty to go down – he’s got more heart than just about anybody – he had to be hurting.”

In the end, the Bears made the necessary adjustments to make up for Morgan’s absence. Clark said Morgan would probably miss a week or so.

“We proved tonight that we’re really a team,” the coach said. “We’ve preached that to our players all year.”

Cleveland shot 56 percent for the game and hit 6-of-13 3s while outrebounding the Bears, 21-20.

Now, the Blue Raiders will have to regroup.

“It was an exciting game and we hope to rebound from this,” McCowan said. “I want to be clicking on all cylinders when we get to the district tournament.”

The tournament will be held at Ooltewah High School.

The girls’ game was close for a quarter.

Nursing a 15-13 lead, Bradley outscored the Lady Raiders, 22-8, in the second period. That outburst was a sign of things to come.

Halle Hughes and E.K. Brown, both sophomores, were just getting warmed up.

The two combined for 23 first-half points and kept the barrage going when the Bearettes (15-4, 8-1) scored 41 points after intermission to turn the game into a rout.

Hughes finished with 27 points and Brown added 23.

“I don’t think we could have wanted this game any more than we did,” Hughes said. “We played our hearts out.”

Hughes scored eight of her 11 first-half points in the second stanza. She put up 10 in the third period and came tantalizingly close to her season-high of 32 points against Central Park of Birmingham, Ala., in an early-season tournament.

Hughes's accuracy -- the Bearettes benefited from many high-percentage layups, hit 11-of-12 of her two-point tries, and made one 3-pointer.

Brown made four of the Bearettes’ seven 3-pointers and went 7-of-8 from the free-throw line – she had 23 points.

Hughes and Brown outscored Cleveland’s team by 10 points.

But, the entire Bearettes squad was pumped for the rematch.

“I was infuriated with the loss to Cleveland and the team was totally frustrated,” Hughes said. “That game was a wake-up call to everyone. It showed us we have to focus in every single game we play. We treat every game as if we’re playing the Tennessee Lady Vols.”

Saturday’s win – the games were postponed from Friday due to a leaky arena roof – was the 13th in 14 meetings with Cleveland for Reuter.

“We’ve been getting ready for this game for the past four days,” he said. “We knew we had to ring the bell for a good start and we did. Early it was like a heavyweight boxing match, but we took control in the second quarter. I’m tickled to death.”

In the game-changing second period, the Bearettes used a 16-0 run to take a 27-13 advantage. The Bearettes started the third period with an 8-2 spurt, with freshman Rhyne Howard starting it all by converting a three-point play.

When Shawnia Anderson, who led Cleveland (10-7, 6-2) with 21 points, made back-to-back field goals 30 seconds apart to trim the Bradley lead to 45-27, the Bearettes scored 12 of the next 15 points and had an insurmountable 57-30 advantage going into the fourth quarter.

Howard, who transferred to Bradley from East Hamilton prior to the 2014-15 school year, scored 17 points, despite playing most of the second half with three fouls.

Bradley has three league games remaining with Ooltewah, Soddy-Daisy and East Hamilton, teams with a combined 21-41 record. Coupled with Saturday’s win and considering the final three opponents, the Bearettes are heavily favored to win their fifth straight regular-season district championship.

The Lady Raiders (10-7, 6-2) finish up against Walker Valley, McMinn County and Ooltewah, giving them a solid crack at the No. 2 seed for the tournament.

Summaries

Boys Game

Cleveland                                         21 12 16 13 – 62

Bradley Central                            14 9 21 21 – 65

Cleveland (62) – Rod Dennard 12, Cantrel Ware 10, Bradford, Constant 8, Beaty 2, Jay Gibson 3, Brown 3, Vecckio 2, Hill 3, K. Ware, Jake Gibson 19, McRee.

Bradley Central (65) – Daniel Clark 21, Cole Copeland 12, Tucker Maroon 13, Pitner, Ware 2, Bradley McCurdy 15, Beavers, Morgan, Parker 2, Rymer.

3-Point Goals – Cleveland 6 (Jake Gibson 4, Jay. Gibson 1, Brown 1), Bradley Central 10 (Copeland 4, Maroon 3, McCurdy 3).

Girls Game

Cleveland                                         13 8 9 10 – 40

Bradley Central                            15 22 20 21 – 78

Cleveland (40) – Ware, Scoggins 4, Stamatiadis 2, Crump, Shawnia Anderson 21, Morman 4, Phillips, Person 2, McClendon 7.

Bradley Central (78) – Halle Hughes 27, K. Brown 6, E.K. Brown 23, Pell, Patterson, Ryne Howard 17, Gaither 5, Abbott, McRee, Davis.

3-Point Goals – Cleveland  none, Bradley Central 7 (E.K. Brown 4, Hughes 1, K. Brown 1, Howard 1).

(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)

 

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