18—Cleveland Daily Banner—Sunday, January 3, 2016
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Bearettes end 2015 as Marlin Classic champs
From Staff Reports
PANAMA CITY BEACH — The
Bradley Central Bearettes traveled to the beach after
Christmas and came home with
some shiny new hardware.
The
Bearettes
smashed
through their competition in the
three-day Marlin Christmas
Classic hosted by J.R. Arnold
High School (Panama City
Beach, Fla.) to cap off 2015 with
a 67-50 championship win over
A. Crawford Mosley (Lynn
Haven, Fla.) on New Year’s Eve.
“I told them walking into the
gym that we were either going to
have a great new year or a not
so great one. Closing the year
out with that championship
should give our kids another
boost of confidence,” Bradley
Central coach Jason Reuter
said.
The Bearettes defeated the
host team, 60-15, and then
picked up another dominant
win the next day, where they
handed Saint Luke’s (Mobile,
Ala.) a 45-13 loss.
“In general, I thought we
played with a lot of intensity,
especially for being the out-oftown team,” Reuter stated. “Our
kids really came out trying to
represent
Tennessee
and
Bradley County in a tournament
that was played in Florida.”
After running through the
competition, the Bearettes faced
a tough test in the Mosley
Dolphins (11-4).
“We played a very good team
in the championship game and
the kids stepped up and execut-
Contributed photo
THE BRADLEY CENTRAL Bearettes won the Marlin Christmas
Classic Championship on New Year’s Eve down in Panama City
Beach, Fla.
ed our game plan well. It was a
good quality win,” the coach
declared.
It was the Dolphins who
jumped out to an early lead in
the first quarter, but a 7-2 run
by the Bearettes put the team
up, 12-9.
Bradley’s three-point lead
doubled by the end of the second quarter, with the Bearettes
putting up 19 points to the
Dolphins’ 16 to close out the
first half.
“We were up six at halftime
and made a couple adjustments,” Reuter explained. “We
went on a 23-4 run in the second half.
With a 31-25 lead to start out
the third quarter, Bradley
outscored Mosley 16-11 before
going into their strongest quarter of the game.
In the fourth quarter the
Bearettes posted 20 points,
while allowing the Dolphins 14.
The team shot 56-percent
from the field and hit 7-of-18
shots from the perimeter. The
only area that Reuter wasn’t
impressed with was his squad’s
shooting from the free throw
line. The Bearettes went 6-for12 at the charity stripe, missing
their first five shots.
Rhyne Howard had a doubledouble in the game, racking up
21 points and 12 rebounds.
Howard hit three 3-point shots.
Halle Hughes finished with 13
points, which included a 3pointer of her own. Julia
Gaither had 12 points in the
game and Sydney Morgan finished with 11 points and also
sank a trio of treys. According to
Reuter, Morgan’s performance
was her best so far in the season and she hit three of four 3point shots.
Following
the
Marlin
Christmas Classic, Bradley now
has an overall record of 12-2,
with their last loss against
Bearden on Nov. 23.
According to Reuter, the
Bearettes have set a steep goal
of winning five championships
this season. The team has
already
won
their
own
Thanksgiving
tournament
championship and now the
Marlin Christmas Classic title,
which leaves the district, region
and state championships next
on their list.
“We’re two-for-two so far. It’s
an ambitious goal, but we’re
going to shoot for the stars,”
Reuter declared.
Bradley jumps back into
action on Tuesday, when the
Bearettes travel to Cumberland
County.
Mocs get come-from-behind win at The Citadel
CHARLESTON, S.C. — The
Chattanooga Mocs scored a
come-from-behind 84-78 win at
The Citadel Saturday afternoon
in the Southern Conference
opener for both programs. The
Mocs were down six, 72-66, with
3:59 to play. That changed
quickly.
Tre' McLean got it started with
a three-point play at 3:47. On the
ensuing possession, a McLean
steal led to an Eric Robertson
dunk. Greg Pryor's steal on the
next trip down turned into a
McLean slam to retake the lead,
73-72.
In a span of 91 seconds, the
Mocs flipped a six-point deficit
into a four-point advantage. The
10-0 spurt was capped by
Robertson's free throw with 2:28
to go.
The Bulldogs closed within two
twice on two Derrick Henry free
throws and a Matt Frierson
triple, but Chattanooga would
not falter. Pryor made four of five
free throws in the final minute,
while the defense stiffened with
stops.
"Anytime you get into conference play, you're going to have to
fight, scratch and crawl just to
get wins," coach Matt McCall
explained. "It's going to be like
that every single night. With the
style of game The Citadel plays,
they can cause you all sorts of
problems. We knew that going in,
and obviously with 17 turnovers,
we did not do a good job handling
the press.
"I felt like we panicked a lot in
the game, and I talked to our
Photo from GoMocs.com
TRE’ MCLEAN’s (23) 18 points and career-high nine rebounds led the Chattanooga Mocs to their seventh straight win Saturday afternoon.
guys before the game about not
panicking. That's how they want
us to play. They want us to
panic. With four minutes to go in
the game, down six, I told our
guys in the timeout, 'Listen, it's a
two-possession game. We need a
score, a stop and a score.' We
ended up getting I think five baskets and five stops down the
stretch, which was ultimately the
reason we were able to come out
with a win."
He continued, "Games like this
our good. The adversity in the
game, that's how you grow as a
team. I'm really just happy for
our guys that we were able to
pull out with a win."
McLean led all scorers with 18
points while grabbing a careerhigh nine rebounds. Pryor added
16 points and five assists. Duke
Ethridge came off the bench to
chip in 13.
Derrick Henry led five in double digits for the Bulldogs with
16 points. Zane Najdawi had 15,
Quinton Marshall and Matt
Frierson 12 apiece and Warren
Sledge totaled 10.
UTC dominated the boards 4426. The +18 is the best against a
DI opponent in 2015-16. Chuck
See MOCS, Page 25
AP file photo
sERENA wiLLiAMs holds the French Open tennis trophy after
beating Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic in three sets. Williams
won the year's first three majors, and came within two match wins of
completing the calendar year Grand Slam at the U.S. Open. The last
to achieve the feat was Germany's Steffi Graf in 1988.
Serena Williams looking
for strong start to 2016
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) —
There may be no tougher act to
follow in any sport in 2016 than
Serena Williams' attempt to
match her nearly perfect season
of tennis last year.
Williams, who won the first
three majors in 2015 and lost in
th e U.S. Open semifinals — 26
consecutive wins in majors, just
missing a calendar-year Grand
Slam — will begin that attempt
when she teams with Jack Sock
for the American team at the
Hopman Cup in Perth, Western
Australia.
The Americans play their first
match Monday against Ukraine.
The tournament is part of the
Australian Open Series that
includes
the
Brisbane
International, which begins
Sunday and includes defending
champions Roger Federer and
Maria Sharapova, and next
week's Sydney International and
Hobart International, culminating in the start of the Australian
Open on Jan. 18 at Melbourne
Park.
In between, Auckland, New
Zealand will also host separate
women's and men's tournaments
over the next two weeks. This
week, Shenzen, China hosts a
WTA tournament and Doha,
Qatar (Novak Djokovic and Rafael
Nadal are the headliners) and
Chennai, India (with Stan
Wawrinka) hold ATP events.
Last year, Williams began her
53-3, five-title season with a win
over Sharapova in the Australian
Open final. She followed that with
a win on clay in the French Open
and on grass at Wimbledon before
losing in a shocking upset to
Roberta Vinci in the U.S. Open
semifinals.
Williams and playing partner
John Isner lost in the Hopman
Cup final last year.
Her singles opponent in Perth
on Monday, Elina Svitolina, is
winless in three matches against
Williams, who was named
Associated Press female athlete of
2015. The Ukrainian, who will
team with Alexandr Dolgopolov,
says it's always best to try to get
to Williams early in a match.
"Sometimes she starts slowly,"
Svitolina said. "It makes it really
tough because you never know if
she's going to serve an ace, or a
double fault, or it's going to be a
normal point."
Andy Murray and Heather
Watson, representing Britain,
also play their opening match
Monday against France's Caroline
Garcia and Kenny De Schepper.
The Hopman Cup begins
Sunday when the Australia Green
team — Nick Kyrgios and Daria
Gavrilova — play Germany's
Sabine Lisicki and Alexander
Zverev. In the other match, the
Australia Gold team, featuring
Lleyton Hewitt, who will retire
after the Australian Open, and
Jarmila Gajdosova, play Karolina
Pliskova and Jiri Vesely of Czech
Republic.
At
Brisbane,
top-seeded
Federer and second-seeded Kei
Nishikori are among those with
first-round byes, while Sharapova
will play fellow Russian Ekaterina
Makarova in a replay of last year's
Australian Open semifinal.
"For a first match, it's a pretty
high-quality match against a
pretty
tough
opponent,"
Sharapova said.
Sharapova and top-seeded
See WILLIAMS, Page 25
Auburn defeats Tennessee in conference opener
string
quarterback
Charlie
Whitehurst all conceivably could
be watching Josh Freeman or
Ryan Lindley playing Tennessee.
“We’ve been through worse,”
coach Chuck Pagano said. “We’ve
got a little issue at the quarterback spot, which some may look
at and say, ‘Gosh, how are you
going to?’ We’ll find a way. It’s
going to be fun to watch.”
And tough to survive with so
many injuries.
Luck will miss his seventh
straight game since being diagnosed with a lacerated kidney and
a partially torn abdominal muscle.
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Bruce
Pearl has been coach the last two
times Auburn beat Tennessee —
just on opposite sides.
Bryce Brown and Kareem Canty
scored 20 points apiece to lead
Pearl’s Tigers to an 83-77 victory
over his former team in the
Southeastern Conference opener
for both.
“So he can relax a little bit,”
Canty said. “He was on our back
about every little thing that he
usually doesn’t get mad about. But
we kind of knew it was because it
was a big game coming up, so
we’re happy we got that win for
him.”
Pearl lost his first matchup
against Tennessee on the road last
season and said that one was more
emotional, just walking through
the doors at an arena where he
logged countless hours and went
through so many highs and lows.
Winning felt pretty good,
though.
“It’s a meaningful game,” Pearl
said, “and it was one that we really
had to have.”
He was the Vols coach in 2009,
the last time they lost to Auburn.
Brown scored 17 of his points in
the second half — including four
3-pointers — to help the Tigers (75) snap a two-game losing streak.
Tyler Harris added 19 points
and 13 rebounds for Auburn. His
brother, Tobias, played for Pearl at
Tennessee.
Kevin Punter and Admiral
Schofield helped keep the
See TITANS, Page 25
See AUBURN, Page 25
AP file photo
TENNEssEE TiTANs quARTERBACk Zach Mettenberger (7)
passes against the New England Patriots during a game in
Foxborough, Mass.
QB question looms for Titans
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The
Indianapolis Colts’ season has
been relegated to this.
Their long-shot playoff hopes
and their coach’s fate could rest
squarely on the shoulders of a
quarterback who hasn’t taken an
NFL snap in more than two years
against a team with more to gain
by losing.
Four months ago, it was a scenario that seemed implausible.
Now, after a series of strange
twists and wrong turns sabotaged
Indianapolis’ season, the biggest
problem could be on full display
Sunday. Starting quarterback
Andrew Luck, backup quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and third-
Julie Bennett /AL.com via AP
AuBuRN foRwARD Jordon Granger (25) blocks a pivotal shot by Tennessee guard Robert Hubbs
III (3) during the second half Saturday in Auburn.