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.