Cleveland junior Dionte Ware, left, and senior Deontae Davis were honored at home before Saturday's Region 3-AAA quarterfinal against Cookeville. Both players reached the 1,000-point mark in their careers during the District 5 tournament earlier in the week. CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Cookeville boys' basketball coach Kevin Bray said after Saturday's Region 3-AAA quarterfinal at Cleveland that coming into the game he wasn't sure that if his team played great if it would be good enough to win. He now knows the answer to that question.
The Cavaliers overcame a slow start, took a 15-point lead, then ended up surviving to beat No. 5-ranked Cleveland 70-68.
Cookeville (23-8) moves on to a semifinal Tuesday at Rhea County, where it will take on East Hamilton.
Saturday's game matched the regular-season champions in Districts 5 and 6. While the Blue Raiders went on to win the District 5 tournament, the Cavaliers fell in a semifinal to rival and fifth-seeded White County, which was eliminated from postseason Saturday by East Hamilton. Bray said that loss lingered with the Cavs as they lost again in the third-place game.
Then compound that with Cleveland getting off to a 19-7 start. But Cookeville awakened with a 27-point second quarter and went to halftime leading 38-32.
"We talked about getting off to a good start, being the road team against a team like Cleveland," Bray said. "We didn't get off to a good start, but we hung in there. We've got a lot of boys with a lot of character. We kept in there in the first half. We held on in the second half."
One of Noah Hilliker's four 3-point goals was a shot from the left corner that went in at the midway point of the third quarter and gave his team a 51-36 lead. He led the Cavs with 27 points.
"Once he saw the ball go through the net," Cleveland coach Jason McCowan said, "he was ready to go."
Cleveland got the deficit down to three early in the fourth quarter, but back-to-back 3s by Hilliker and Bailey Gilliam quickly pushed it back to nine. The Blue Raiders battled back within 67-65, calling a timeout with 59.9 seconds to play after Romeo Wykle's 3-point basket.
Because Cleveland had so few team fouls in the second half, Cookeville ran much of that final minute off and then got a back-cut layup from Jacob Reeves off a feed from Hilliker with 12 seconds to play. With time winding down, the Blue Raiders' Deontae Davis was fouled on a 3-point shot.
He made all the free throws and Cleveland's foul after the inbound was its seventh and sent Reeves to the line for a one-and-one. He made the first, missed the second and Dionte Ware's full-court heave was off the mark.
"There was only 2.4 seconds left," McCowan said of when Davis went to the line. "If we miss and they get the rebound and we foul, we've got no chance. The only bad thing was, I thought we fouled a little earlier than 1.2 seconds. And it was pretty smart on their part missing that second free throw."
Alex Garrett added 23 points for the Cavs, he and Hilliker each making 11 field goals. Reeves finished with 10.
Davis paced the Blue Raiders with 19 points. Wykle made four 3s and totaled 16 points, and Mullek Bradford added 12 points.
"It's a tough way to end it," said McCowan, whose team ends the year 22-5. "I couldn't ask for a better group to coach. Every day was easy motivating them to play hard. It's a fun group to be around."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.