Bradley Central Wins District 5-3A Tournament Over Cleveland 62-60 In Controversial Ending

CHARLESTON, Tenn. – Bradley Central handed rival Cleveland its first loss of the season to win the District 5-3A tournament championship, but it certainly did not come without controversy.

 

Tied at 60 points apiece, Cleveland’s Grant Hurst drove to the basket in the final seconds with a chance for the game-winner. His lay-up was short, and as Bradley Central’s Quante Berry grabbed the rebound and turned to launch a desperation shot, the refs blew the whistle.

 

Reacting to Hurst’s shot, JaCobi Wood – who did not play in the contest due to injury – jumped up off his seat on the bench and accidentally stepped just onto the court and into the path of one of the officials running down the sidelines.

Wood was whistled for a technical foul with 2.0 seconds left, drawing a chorus of boos and anger from Blue Raiders’ fans.

 

Bradley Central’s Mason Rothwell calmly stepped up and made both free throws. The ensuing in-bounds pass was stolen by Hurst, but his heave wasn’t close and the Bears upset the Class 3A No. 1 Blue Raiders 62-60.

 

Tray Curry, who was named tournament MVP, led Bradley Central with 19 points. Rothwell scored 16, while Quante Berry followed with 15.

 

“We had gone through the game plan of what we wanted to do, and we basically executed it pretty doggone well, so I was pleased with that for the most part,” said Bradley Central coach Chuck Clark. “They played under control and with a great deal of composure, and that’s the biggest thing about games like this. You have to learn to win and play with composure, and that’s what we did and I’m proud of them.”

 

For nearly a half-hour after the game and awards that followed, fans of both sides – and some from other teams in the district – stood on the court and debated the call. Some argued that if the action warranted a technical foul, then the time of the game shouldn’t matter. Others would have preferred a no-call and a chance for the players to decide the game on the court in overtime.

 

Cleveland coach Reggie Tucker was clear on which side of the fence he stood, but also quickly admitted that his team could have done a lot to keep themselves from being in that situation to begin with.

 

“It’s disappointing to make that call with seconds left in the game; let the kids decide the game,” Tucker said. “That’s what’s disappointing, but it is what it is, we’ll bounce back.”

 

“I felt like it was more about what we didn’t do than what they did. We had a couple of guys miss free throws and we had some mental breakdowns. We just have to finish the game; if we finish the game right there, it’s over. We did enough to win the game, but we just have to do a better job of finishing.”

 

It is unfortunate that, for many, the call will be the topic of discussion around Bradley County in the coming days, because the game had been an instant classic up until those final two seconds. There were six lead changes in the contest, and the margin never got to double digits for either team, with Cleveland (29-1) holding the largest lead at nine points in the second quarter.

 

Both teams lit it up from deep, combining to make 20 shots from behind the arc in the game. Cleveland’s Kley McGowan had six of those 3-pointers to score a game-high 24 points.

 

Bradley Central’s athleticism showed from the start. They scored their first six points in the paint, with Curry putting home back-to-back buckets early that gave his team a quick 6-3 lead. Near the end of the first quarter, Rothwell and Berry nailed 3-pointers followed by a dunk by the latter for an eight-point run as the Bears (21-5) led 18-15 after a period.

 

Curry threw down a thunderous dunk to open up the second quarter, and Berry hit another triple from the right wing to extend the Bears’ lead to five. That’s when McGowan and the Blue Raiders began to assert themselves on both ends of the court. Two 3-pointers from the junior and another by Hurst – who scored 13 points in the game – highlighted a 13-0 run by the Blue Raiders that gave them a 31-23 advantage.

 

Curry and Hurst traded 3-pointers late in the period, and the Bears scored the final four points to go into halftime trailing 35-30.

 

McGowan put on a show in the third quarter. The junior hit three 3-pointers – one of which was a four-point play – and scored 13 of Cleveland’s 15 points in the period. His teammates didn’t provide much support offensively in the quarter, however, and Curry and Rothwell scored five apiece as the Bears matched the Blue Raiders shot for shot, heading into the final period trailing by four.

 

Cleveland’s Michael Dale got a steal and a lay-up to open the final quarter, but was whistled for a technical foul for taunting as he clapped at one of the Bradley Central players after the bucket. Rothwell knocked down both free throws, and Ashton Boyd made a trey from the right corner to give the Bears a five-point possession and trim the Blue Raiders’ lead to just one.

 

Leading by the same margin minutes later, Hurst grabbed a steal and took it coast-to-coast for the lay-up to widen the gap to three for Cleveland. Senior Morrell Schramm – who finished with 13 points – took a pass from Antonnio Whaley a possession later as he cut down the right baseline and hammered home a dunk to give Cleveland a 60-55 lead with 2:55 to play.

 

Cleveland got the stops they needed on the next two Bradley Central possessions, but Whaley and Hurst each missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and the Blue Raiders failed to extend the lead.

 

After cutting the lead to three points, the Bears had possession and a chance to tie the game with 1:30 left. With the ball in Curry’s hands as he dribbled across half-court, he calmly and confidently dribbled to the top of the key in isolation with his defender and let it fly, hitting nothing but the bottom of the net.

 

“I kind of knew it was going to go down. My point guard told me to go get the ball, and I just came down and shot it and it went in,” said Curry. “This is a big moment for us because in the beginning of the season we were trying to learn about ourselves, and we’ve already lost to Cleveland twice, so it was big to come out and beat them in the district championship.”

 

Cleveland was able to hold for the final shot by dribbling out the last minute, but Hurst’s missed lay-up led to the game-changing call. After the dust had settled on what had transpired, Rothwell calmly stepped up with a hostile environment all around him and made the game-winning free throws.

 

“We’ve prepared for moments like that shooting free throws every day at practice,” Rothwell said. “This is a great moment for us because we’ve been working so hard for this all season. We came out in the first half and made some questionable decisions on the defensive end, but we bounced back in the second half and did what we needed to do to get the win.”

 

When Clark was asked whether he had any doubt that Rothwell would step up and make both free throws, he answered without hesitation with an emphatic no.

 

“When finish practice, I’ll make them pick somebody to make three in a row to get to go home, and the guys always call out Mason.”

 

Both teams will host games in the first round of the region tournament at 7:00 on Saturday night. Bradley Central will play Stone Memorial, while Cleveland will take on Cookeville.