The Bradley Central basketball teams continued to steamroll their way through their new District 6-4A opponents on Tuesday night as they ran roughshod over The Howard School, at Jim Smiddy Arena.
After an astronomical 46-4 opening period streak, the reigning state champ Bearettes fell a single point shy of the century mark with a 99-22 win, while the Bears also started strong storming to a 32-4 first quarter lead and never looked back with a 71-39 verdict to clinch the regular season district title.
Bradley will now turn its attention to cross-town rival and former district opponent Cleveland with a visit Raider Arena on tap Friday for their second battle of the season after the Bear squads swept the earlier encounters.
McMinn Central will comes to Jim Smiddy Arena on Monday for a makeup that will feature a showdown of top-ranked girls' teams.
The Bearettes can secure their 14th straight district crown with a victory in the regular season finale Feb. 9 at East Hamilton.
BEARS 71
TIGERS 39
It was almost over in the first quarter as the Bears (15-7, 5-0) opened with a blistering defense and scored the first 28 points of the game before Howard (8-12, 1-4) could recover.
The Hustlin’ Tigers held their own for the rest of the game as the Bears came close to a "mercy rule" running clock when they eventually built their lead to 34 points with 3:56 remaining in the game.
“We really got after them in the first quarter,” stated an elated "Papa Bear" Zach Carpenter after the game. “Our defense set us up for some easy transition scores and it was fun to watch.”
Junior Tyrese Stovall continued his outstanding play in the paint posting yet another double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds.
Senior teammates Jarrius Rogers and Jackson Ary, who cleared seven caroms, both matched Stovall with 11 points apiece.
“My first look at the stat sheet was to check turnovers and rebounds,” continued Coach Carpenter. “We had 14 turnovers for the game (seven each half) which was a little higher than the goal that I set but we had 20 offensive rebounds and 14 assists on 26 made shots. We forced 22 turnovers for Howard, which led to 24 points for us off their turnovers.”
Senior Alex Walker returned to action after missing one month recovering from a foot injury in the Bears’ Florida holiday tournament and will get an opportunity to get more playing time as the regular season winds down.
In Tuesday’s game, the Bears shot 41.3% from the floor as they connected on 26-of-63 shots, including 9-of-24 (37.5%) from long-range, plus and 10-for-19 from the charity stripe.
Rogers and junior Hunter Fields both dialed long-distance on two occasions with five other Bears zeroing in from downtown as well.
BEARETTES 99
LADY TIGERS 22
The Bear Nation fans in attendance were screaming for one more point as the clock ticked down, but it was not to be in this game.
Using their suffocating defense, the Bearettes (21-1, 5-0) put a staggering 46 points on the scoreboard in the first quarter against the out-manned Lady Tigers (3-11, 0-5).
The win for the Bearettes was their 133rd consecutive over district opponents, covering the past 10 seasons. When that streak will end is anyone’s guess with three juniors and two sophomores currently in the starting lineup and just one senior on the roster.
One of those sophomores, Kimora Fields, playing just one period, led the team in scoring with 17 points. The 2024 Ms. Tennessee Basketball nominee also made six swipes and dished out two assists in only eight minutes on the court.
The Bearettes wasted little time building the big lead as they made 70% of their shot attempts in the first half hitting 28-of-40 attempts for a staggering 67-14 halftime lead after a 33-point scoring run in the first quarter quickly put the game out of reach.
Eleven different Bearettes found their name into the scoring column with junior Tatianna Stovall picking up 16 points and four thefts, while junior teammates Love Howard and Alliyah Osborn added 11 points and 10 points, respectively.
Junior point guard Malia Wilcox continues to shine as she contributed seven assists, while making five steals and recording no turnovers for the game.
The Bearettes knocked down nine 3-pointers with lone senior Grace Phillips and junior Abby White leading the way with two each.
Bearette Coach Jason Reuter was pleased with the team only losing the ball twice on turnovers in the second half after having zero turnovers in the first half. Bradley handed out 20 "dimes" on 41 made shots on the evening.
