CLEVELAND, Tenn. - No. 2-ranked Bradley Central picked a bad time to have its worst shooting night of the high school basketball season Saturday. But Stewarts Creek's Lady Red Hawks aren't complaining.
The state's 10th-ranked team benefited greatly from Bradley's shooting woes and will be making its first appearance in the state tournament after defeating the host Bearettes 55-49 in a Class AAA sectional.
Stewarts Creek is 25-6 in its fourth season as a varsity program, with four of the losses to top-ranked Riverdale. Last season was its first appearance in a sectional, also at Bradley, but that was a 68-58 loss.
"I think last year's experience kind of helped us," Stewarts Creek coach Lindy King said. "We made that drive. Now we want to go over there and win it. I'm proud of how well we played together. We overcame some big adversity."
Among the areas in which the Lady Red Hawks performed well was doing a satisfactory job handling the Bearettes' pressure defense and also pulling down 13 offensive rebounds. But on the other end, the large majority of the Bearettes' 16 3-point shots were open looks. One went in.
Even from the free-throw line, Bradley (32-1) was 14-for-27.
"This is the low point of the year," said Bradley coach Jason Reuter, whose team ended up 17-for-50 from the floor. "We've had nights where we didn't shoot it well, but we've never been 1-for-16 from 3.
"If we go 4-for-12 (which is what Stewarts Creek shot from behind the arc), we probably win the game," he added. "By far this was our worst shooting night."
The game was close throughout, but Bradley's last lead ended up being 25-24 late in the first half. The Lady Red Hawks took the lead for good when Brandi Ferby's basket inside broke a tie at 29 with 6:28 left in the third quarter.
Stewarts Creek pushed the lead has high as 11 points in the fourth quarter, the last at 50-39. Then with four minutes to play, Rhyne Howard made the Bearettes' 3-pointer and started them on a positive closing stretch, but wtihin four was as close as they could get.
"We hustled and played together as a team," King said. "I can't say enough about Kyra Wilder and how she stepped up. She probably didn't score much (five points), but she had the task of guarding Rhyne Howard.
"Every single kid that played, played together and played hard."
Ferby led Stewarts Creek with 16 points and twin sister Brianah scored 15 and had nine rebounds and four steals. They have signed with Austin Peay.
Despite being hounded by Wilder, Howard finished with 28 points and also had 13 rebounds and five blocks. Lee University signee Halle Hughes added 12 points.
"This is hard, knowing the legacy these seniors are leaving here," Reuter said. "This is one of the hardest ones I've had. They have represented Bradley Central well. I'm not going to let one game define their careers."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.