Staying in state

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — The toughest thing for Rachael Isom to do was not think about the situation she was facing.

With three seconds remaining in Thursday’s Class AAA state-tournament quarterfinal and the score tied, Cleveland’s senior guard stepped to the free-throw line.

“Honestly, I tried to block it all out,” Isom said. “I wanted to pretend it was just a routine couple of free throws like in practice. The more you think about something like that, the more pressure creeps in.”

Isom calmly made both free throws, giving the third-ranked Lady Blue Raiders their first lead since early in the first quarter. And when Smyrna’s Emily Pollock missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer, Cleveland had claimed a 38-36 victory.

In their fourth straight trip to the state tournament, the Lady Raiders will try finally to get past the semifinals when they face No. 2-ranked Millington tonight at 8 EST.

“We played like a team that wanted to come back and play again tomorrow,” Cleveland coach Rachel Moore said. “If I’ve learned anything from the previous three years up here, it’s that the team that can overcome adversity had a good chance of going deep into the tournament.”

Cleveland (32-2) scored the game’s first basket but didn’t lead after the 5:38 mark of the first quarter before Isom’s free throws. Trailing by two points early in the second quarter, Cleveland was outscored 11-2 over the next four minutes and got no closer than seven before halftime.

The Lady Raiders hit just 27 percent of their first-half shots, missing all five 3-point attempts, while Smyrna made 47 percent of its field-goal tries.

“They had some people making shots that we didn’t expect to,” said Cleveland’s Miss Basketball finalist Michelle Davis, who was held to eight points. “Coach Moore kept telling us to stay calm and weather the storm, but it was getting frustrating for a while.”

Smyrna’s lead grew to 11 with 5:05 left in the third quarter before Cacy Burtnett scored seven of her 11 points in the next two minutes to cut the deficit to one.

The ninth-ranked Lady Bulldogs (28-5) extended their lead back to four with five minutes remaining in the game before Morgan Isom and Michelle Davis connected on consecutive jumpers just inside the 3-point arc to tie the score. The teams traded baskets again, with Burtnett evening the score with 1:51 remaining.

That’s when Cleveland twice had an opportunity to take the lead on 3-pointers by Rachael Isom, but both times Moore called time out just before the shot.

“I couldn’t believe it happened twice,” Moore said. “Both times we looked a little scattered on offense and I was just trying to make sure we got a good shot. But I called time out at just the wrong time, and after it happened the second time, I thought, ‘This isn’t good.’

“I told the girls at halftime to just throw everything at them. I wanted us to speed them up and see how they reacted to playing our style. They overcame a lot out there, including me calling some timeouts at bad times.”

The Lady Raiders shot 45 percent from the floor in the second half.

After holding the ball for more than a minute, they twice grabbed offensive rebounds in the closing seconds before Isom was fouled driving to the basket.