MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The ice in point guard Jamaryn Blair's veins was still thawing Saturday evening as reality set in regarding what she and her Bradley Central teammates had accomplished at the TSSAA Class AAA state tournament.
Blair became just the second sophomore to win the AAA tournament's MVP award, joining 2014 winner Crystal Dangerfield of Blackman, who's now a University of Connecticut standout. Blair received the honor after helping lead the Bearettes to three fourth-quarter comebacks at Middle Tennessee State University's Murphy Center - 34-26 against Lebanon in a quarterfinal Thursday, 56-50 in overtime against Oak Ridge in a semifinal Friday and 46-44 against Houston in the title game Saturday.
As a result, a sixth gold ball will enter the trophy case at Bradley's Jim Smiddy Arena.
"To be recognized as the tournament MVP means a lot," said Blair, who averaged 18.7 points per game while shooting 47.4 percent from the field and 80 percent on free throws in Murfreesboro. "It wasn't just me, though. My teammates stepped up, and we definitely showed defense can win championships."
The Bearettes held Houston to a dozen fewer points than its previous season low and 26.7 shy of its season average entering the game. Bradley set a TSSAA state tournament record for blocked shots with a combined 22 in the three games and held a pair of Miss Basketball finalists to a combined 10-of-27 (37 percent) from the field.
A day after Blair scored 11 points over the final 1:38 of regulation and the four-minute overtime period versus Oak Ridge, she helped her team fight back from a 42-37 deficit against Houston. She scored six of her game-high 25 points in the final 4:27.
Blair finished the season having made 60.7 percent of her free throws, but she was significantly better starting with the Region 3-AAA championship victory. In Bradley's final five games, Blair shot 33-of-40 (.825) from the line, including a combined 13-of-14 within the last 5:45 of the fourth quarter of the three state matchups in Murfreesboro.
"This state tournament was a roller coaster. There were a lot of ups and downs during the games," Blair said. "But we practiced all season for this moment and how to not lose focus late in games. I can't put into words the emotion we all are feeling. It's so amazing."
Blair - the first Chattanooga-area girls' basketball player to win a state tournament MVP award since Chadarryl Clay in 2012 for GPS - had zero turnovers against Houston, and her fourth assist of the game went to Hannah Lombard, who made the winning 3-pointer with 1.2 seconds left.
Having dreamed of what the moment would feel like, on Saturday the Bearettes basked in the glory as they ended a span of 15,701 days in between the program's fifth and sixth state championships. Blair and Bradley junior Anna Walker, who averaged 11.3 points and four blocks at the state tournament, will return next season to anchor the Bearettes in their hunt for a seventh state title.
But the program with the most wins in state history has already written a new chapter in which a young, budding star played a major part.
"It's like we were almost in a bit of shock," Bearettes coach Jason Reuter said. "It's such a dramatic win. It's like we were in a movie. A little bit of a 'Hoosiers' story. We had to grind so many games out and fight to the finish.
"It's almost like the basketball gods were on our side."
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @PMacCoon.
