CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- Bradley Central's boys proved once again that it's not how long you lead in a game but when.
The Bears trailed most of Saturday's District 5-AAA high school game against rival Cleveland. But they rallied and put themselves in position to sneak out of their own gymnasium with a win, and they fittingly got the go-ahead points in their 65-62 victory on a 3-point goal -- this one by Bradley McCurdy -- with eight seconds left.
Daniel Clark, who played a key role for Bradley down the stretch, tacked on a free throw with 2.9 seconds to play. Then when Cantrel Ware's three-quarter-court heave at the buzzer went awry, the Bears had escaped.
"We shot the ball pretty good," Bradley coach Chuck Clark said. "That was the biggest thing. When those 3s are going in for us, our defensive intensity picks up."
The Bears made 10 3-pointers, led by Tucker Maroon's four. McCurdy and Cole Copeland split the others.
"I don't stop the guys we basically designate to shoot the 3s," said Coach Clark, whose 14-7 team is shooting 33 percent from behind the arc on the season. "I allow them the leeway. We do a lot of shooting from 3 in practice, so it is a big part of our arsenal."
Bradley led some early. But after the Blue Raiders tied the score at 11 and then went ahead on T.J. Constant's three-point play with 1:26 to go in the first quarter, the Bears trailed until McCurdy made two free throws to make it 52-51 with 6:09 to play.
That lead was short-lived, thanks to a 9-2 Cleveland run. But that's when Daniel Clark, who led Bradley in scoring, went to work driving to the basket and providing eight of his 21 points in the final 2:34.
McCurdy finished with 15 points and Maroon totaled 13. All 12 of Copeland's points were after halftime.
Jake Gibson was the hot shooter for the Blue Raiders with four 3s among his 19 points. But he missed two front ends of free-throw bonus situations in the final 16.2 seconds that proved costly.
Neither scored in the first quarter, but Rod Dennard and Ware added 12 and 10 points for Cleveland, which lost for the first time in eight district games. The Blue Raiders split with Bradley (8-1), so if the teams win out, a coin flip will decide the top-seeded team for the district tournament. The top two seeds get byes.
* Bradley girls 78, Cleveland 40: After the game Bradley Central coach Jason Reuter said his team had been preparing for Cleveland for four days. But the way the Bearettes played, it looked as though they had been gearing toward this game since Dec. 12, when at Cleveland Middle School the Lady Raiders handed them their only District 5-AAA loss to date.
By giving Cleveland its second district loss, Bradley (15-4, 8-1) stands alone as the only team in the league with fewer than two losses.
"We know we didn't give our best effort over there," Reuter said of the game at Cleveland. "We know we didn't play well -- not taking anything away from Cleveland. We had to ring that bell and we knew we could do that tonight. This means a lot in the district. We've got three games left and we will be the favorite in the last three games."
The Bearettes led by two at the end of one quarter. But it was the middle quarters where they took command with a 42-17 scoring edge to lead 57-30 going to the fourth.
"We shot the ball extremely well," Reuter said. "Of course, we shot a lot of layups. We thought we could drive it on them.
"I'm not concerned with how many passes are made. My concern is that we get good shots. For the most part, we did."
Halle Hughes was the leader in shooting efficiency for Bradley, going 11-of-12 from inside the arc and adding a 3-pointer on the way to 27 points. Emma Kate Brown, who did not play in the road loss to the Lady Raiders, made 4 of 8 from 3-point distance and scored 23. Rhyne Howard had eight assists and three blocks to go with her 17 points.
Shawnia Anderson had 21 points for Cleveland, but no other Lady Raider had more than seven.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him at twitter.com/KelleySmiddie.