GPS’s Jeneh Perry, right, looks to pass against Oak Ridge’s Tanjela Capshaw Friday at Bradley Central High School.GPS coach Susan Crownover knows she can’t go into every game this basketball season relying solely on the scoring of seniors Chadarryl Clay and Simone Busby. Yet the two showed Friday afternoon that they were fully capable of carrying the load when needed.
The two combined for 45 points as the Bruisers advanced to the semifinals of the Mountain View Inn Thanksgiving Tournament with a 71-44 victory over Class AAA school Oak Ridge at Bradley Central.
GPS (2-1) will face Wilson Central (2-0), a 68-52 victor over McMinn County, this afternoon at 4:30. Oak Ridge will face McMinn in a consolation matchup at 1. The championship game will be played Sunday afternoon.
Clay scored 30 points and Busby had 15, and they equaled the Lady Wildcats’ first-quarter total as GPS built a 17-11 lead. Clay had 15 of GPS’s 23 second-quarter points, and her 21 in the first half were six more than the entire Oak Ridge team.
“We improved as the game went along, but I think we were intimidated from the start,” Oak Ridge coach Karra Jackson said. “I told our girls that [the Bruisers] were putting on a show in the first half. We had no desire to keep No. 5 [Clay] in front of us.”