Cole CopelandCLEVELAND, Tenn. - It was standing room only as the Bradley Central boys' basketball team edged nearby District 5-AAA rival Cleveland in overtime.
Cole Copeland's free throw with time expired in regulation gave Bradley second life, and the Bears dominated the overtime period to win 78-67 Tuesday night. The teams squared off at Cleveland Middle School with the CHS gym under construction.
At the end of a back-and-forth second half, KK Curry put Cleveland up 63-62 by hitting two free throws with 38 seconds left. A missed layup gave the Blue Raiders a chance to go up three but they missed pair of free throws, which opened the door for Copeland. With six ticks left, he streaked down the floor and drew a foul at the buzzer.
Copeland missed the first free throw but, after a lengthy wait because of a timeout, calmly drained the second.
"It starts with their whole family," said Bradley Central coach Chuck Clark. "(The Copelands) are all competitive, and they don't like to lose. They were in the gym the other day playing H-O-R-S-E and just mouthing at each other, so that's where it comes from. Cole is a competitor, and he doesn't like to lose."
Copeland finished with 22 points, including five in the overtime period. Cleveland did not give much resistance in the extra frame, when it was outscored 15-4. Copeland helped ice the game with two more free throws to put the Bears up four and a dagger three-point play for a 76-67 margin.
"We had a lot of opportunities to win the game and put the game away, but we just didn't," Raiders coach Jason McCowan said. "It was a good district game and a learning lesson for us. I think our defensive intensity dropped. We have to give that extra 10 percent, and we're learning what it takes to find that."
Cleveland flipped the script in the second half after trailing throughout the first two quarters. The Raiders went into the locker room down 35-32, after Tyrell Pitner led a second-quarter charge for the Bears with 12 of his 17 points, but got out to a six-point advantage by the start of the fourth quarter.
Curry carried the load with 11 of his 39 points in the third quarter.
"Our adjustment was to stop settling for 3s," McCowan said. "We were taking too many 3s, and we were more aggressive toward the rim in the second half and attacked off the dribble."
The Bears refused to let the game get out of hand and never trailed by more than six. They trimmed the fourth-quarter deficit from the start with a 3-pointer from John Brown to make it 53-50. Pitner tied it at 57 with 3:45 to go, and the two teams traded blows until the final buzzer.
"We took some bad shots and had some bad possessions and (Cleveland) had some good ones," Clark said. "I thought about calling a timeout, but I thought we could weather their storm and we did. We preach composure the whole time, and we were composed."
Bradley McCurdy chipped in 14 points for the Bears, while Deontae Davis and TJ Constant each had 10 for the Raiders.
Contact Idris Garcia at sports@timesfreepress.com.