Staff photo by Dan Henry – The Chattanooga Times Free Press. Bradley Central’s Darien Johnson (12) drives towards the basket while playing against Ooltewah during the first half of play in Friday evenings matchup in Cleveland, Tenn.CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Kent Smith had been waiting for a sign that his young Bradley Central basketball team was ready to grow up and recognize its potential.
Friday night, with state-ranked Ooltewah visiting, the Bears proved they can be as dangerous as any area team by the postseason, provided they can continue to build on the effort of a resounding 74-59 District 5-AAA win.
“We’ve been so streaky all year, and you could feel we were knocking on the door for that signature win to build confidence,” said Smith, who has no seniors on the roster. “If the kids would just execute and believe, I knew it was coming.
“Now the question is, ‘What will they do with a win like this?’ If we’re going to be as good as we can be, we’ll build on it.”
An 8-0 run late in the first quarter helped the Bears (13-5, 4-3) overcome a three-point deficit, and a 16-2 surge midway through the second quarter put them in control. It was during that second scoring spurt that sophomore guard Bryce Copeland scored 10 of his game-high 24 points. He also finished with seven rebounds.
“To jump on them early was huge for our confidence,” Copeland said. “We wanted to frustrate them defensively and not give up anything easy.
“A few of us are just now getting into shape after football, and you can see a difference in the intensity now that we’re playing with confidence.”
Bradley shot 50 percent from the field, despite missing all six of its 3-point attempts, and outrebounded the Owls 47-18, led by James Stovall’s 15. Stovall also had 10 points, three blocked shots and an emphatic alley-oop dunk with less than a minute remaining to punctuate the win.
Facing a team with long, athletic players, led by Jervon Johnson, Bradley elected not to press Ooltewah and defended the visitors with a box-and-one against Johnson. That strategy kept the Owls (15-4, 4-1) from running out for easy layups and held Johnson to five points in the second half.
Ooltewah, which had won the teams’ first meeting this season by two points, got as close as eight in the second half before Bradley pulled away again with a 9-0 run, highlighted by three consecutive steals leading to layups.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.