CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Jason Reuter wanted to make the point clear following Friday night’s cakewalk in the Region 3-AAA quarterfinals that the basketball postseason is not that easy – and won’t be from here.
The Bradley Central girls’ coach, after his 28-3 team rolled past Stone Memorial, 66-27, was thankful for the opportunity to give his starters some rest in the second half while also giving his younger players a taste of the postseason.
“We’ve had our share of tough tests the past two games, so it was nice to take a breather there,” Reuter said. “We knew for all practical purposes the game was over at halftime. You can tend to let down a bit after a game where you’re not tested, but this time of year is also about fresh legs, so we needed this game.”
The Bearettes will play at Cookeville in the region semifinals Monday against the hosts, who defeated East Hamilton 42-33 on Friday.
Bradley actually trailed Friday, 3-2 after an early Stone Memorial 3-pointer, but any Lady Panthers upset aspirations soon disappeared as the Bearettes went on a 29-0 run that spanned the rest of the first period and the first three minutes of the second.
Keying the surge was a smothering defense that forced 12 first-period turnovers and nine in the second. Super sophomore Rhyne Howard had four early steals and scored 10 points during the streak, while Emma Kate Brown had three steals and Julia Gaither scored six of her 10 points.
“Coach Reuter told us we needed to pressure more and get some easy baskets, and that’s what we did,” said Howard, who finished with a game-high 18 points after being honored before the game for scoring her 1,000th career point. “We had played them before and it wasn’t much of a battle then, so we knew we could get up on them.”
A Brown 3-pointer with three minutes left in the half moved the lead to 30, and a 9-0 run to end the half pushed it to 47-10. The starters played only a few minutes in the second half, much to their coach’s delight.
“The semifinals are Monday at Cookeville, so it’s a pretty quick turnaround,” Reuter said. “I will take this instead of a white-knuckler. Our kids came out ready to play and they were hungry. We certainly didn’t want to run the score up, but we did what we had to do in the first half.”
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296; follow on Twitter @youngsports22