BY JESSE SMITHEY
MURFREESBORO — Winning Class AAA state tournament games aren’t supposed to be easy. The Oak Ridge girls’ basketball team proved overwise Thursday.
The Lady Wildcats led by as many as 20 points in the fourth quarter and won their 31st consecutive game by dispensing of Science Hill, 65-49. The victory was Oak Ridge’s first state-tournament win since making a run to the 2016 state championship game.
Oak Ridge (34-2) will face Bradley Central (32-3) at 2:45 p.m. Central on Friday in the state semifinals. Bradley Central won 34-26 Thursday over Lebanon despite shooting 25 percent from the floor and getting out-rebounded by 17.
Oak Ridge’s Jada Guinn (24) led all scorers (17) and rebounders (11) in a 65-49 win over Science Hill on Thursday in the Class AAA state quarterfinals.
Oak Ridge had no such trouble against Science Hill (31-4), as they shot 56.5 percent in the second half to put the Lady Hilltoppers away.
Jada Guinn, who’s been battling an illness since the weekend, led all scorers and rebounders with 17 and 11, respectively.
“I just had to push through,” said Guinn, a Tennessee Tech signee and Miss Basketball finalist. “This could have been my last game today. I could make an excuse and be like, ‘Oh, I’m sick.’ Or I could push through.”
Oak Ridge used 3-pointers to break free from Science Hill in the third quarter. Bri Dunbar, who had 14 points, popped one in at the 5-minute, 51-second mark to break the 26-all tie. Guinn added one with 3:29 left in the quarter to push the lead to 34-28, and that shot spurred on a 12-3 run for a 44-31 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Guinn, Taliah Davis and Shatyrah Copeland (12 points) each added point-blank easy scores in the final 90 seconds of the third. That spurt continued into the fourth quarter, when Guinn found Khamari Mitchell-Steen (12 points) for an easy transition bucket and 48-31 lead with 7:04 to play.
The lead ultimate reached 20 points (63-43) late in the fourth quarter. Guinn got caught up a little bit in scoreboard-watching just to see if they “had it in the bag.”
“But we still wanted to push,” she said, “and finish the game.”
It all didn’t come easy for the Lady Cats at first, though. They missed five of their first six shots. But Oak Ridge overcame an early 7-2 deficit by closing the first quarter on a 13-2 run. Copeland proved big during that spurt with six first-quarter points and two rebounds.
Guinn sparked a 7-0 run with four points midway through the second quarter that broke a 15-all tie. She reached the half with six points and seven rebounds, as Oak Ridge out-rebounded Science Hill 24-12 en route to a 24-21 halftime lead.
Then, the Lady Wildcats just used their energy to lock down the game in the second half.
“I think we just started getting stops defensively and just had an energy to push in transition,” said Oak Ridge coach Paige Redman. “We talked about that at halftime — needing to change the pace and just bring more energy.”