CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Not even the emotion of a heated rivalry could bridge the Bradley Central girls' basketball team's talent and intensity gap Friday evening.
The Bearettes, ranked No. 21 in the nation by USA Today, wasted no time in establishing dominance on their way to an 83-34 win over District 5-AAA foe and crosstown rival Cleveland at Jim Smiddy Arena.
The win was the 17th straight to begin the season for the Bearettes, who remain atop the district. Cleveland's loss keeps East Hamilton, which is 3-1 in the league, in sole possession of second place. The Lady Hurricanes did not play Friday.
Bradley Central (17-0, 4-0) set the tone early, led by a pressing defense that created havoc and contested every pass. Feeding off the turnovers created by its up-tempo defense, Bradley built a double-digit lead in just over five minutes of the first quarter and continued to dominate throughout.
"We played well any way you want to look at it. Every facet, we played a very complete game," said Bearettes coach Jason Reuter. "We shot the ball extremely well. We're not going to shoot that well every night - that's why we hang our hat on defense. We turned them over quite a bit early, and for all practical purposes the game was over at halftime.
"You don't see any selfish play on our team. We're the deeper team and the more seasoned team. This is a hard place for other teams to win. It was a system win, a team win."
Cleveland scored the first two points of the game, but the Bearettes responded with a 13-0 run and continued pulling away, taking a 35-point halftime lead when Rhyne Howard made a 3-point shot just before the buzzer.
The Bearettes had 11 of their 16 steals in the first half, when they made 63 percent of their field-goal tries. Everybody who played for them in the first two quarters scored. And they stayed hot in the second half with 62-percent shooting.
"Things are running smoothly and we're working as a team," said junior Hannah Lombard, who had three steals and five points. "We work and push each other every day in practice, and that's showing up in games."
The fourth quarter began with the running-clock mercy rule in effect. Four Bearettes finished in double-figure scoring, led by sophomore Anna Walker's 14 points, while Kaleigh Hughes added 12 and Anna Roberts had 10, all in the first half.
Howard, a Kentucky signee who was honored before the game for having scored more than 2,000 points in her career, finished with 13 points. The only senior on Bradley's roster had seven of her team-high eight assists in the first half and also led the Bearettes with seven rebounds.
Cleveland (8-8, 2-2) was led by Emma Flowers' seven points and six rebounds.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.