The Oak Ridge Lady Wildcats made it to the state basketball tournament for the third time in four years by beating Dobyns-Bennett 59-42 in a Class AAA sectional game at Wildcat Arena on Saturday, March 2, 2019. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was updated at 3:25 p.m.
Oak Ridge advanced to a state semifinal game on Friday with a 65-49 win over Science Hill in the Class AAA girls basketball tournament in Murfreesboro on Thursday.
The Lady Wildcats trailed in the first quarter by five points, but they went on an 11-0 run to take the lead by the end of that quarter.
The game remained relatively close until Oak Ridge went on a 14-4 run starting at about 3:30 in the third quarter and continuing through the first few minutes of the fourth quarter. The Lady Wildcats then widened their lead in the final six minutes.
The Lady Wildcats (34-2) will play Bradley Central (32-3) in a Class AAA girls semifinal game in Murphy Center at Middle Tennessee State University at 2:45 p.m. (3:45 p.m. Eastern) on Friday.
Bradley Central advanced by defeating Lebanon 34-26 in another quarterfinal game on Thursday.
Oak Ridge was led against Science Hill by senior Jada Guinn, a Miss Basketball finalist who has signed to play at Tennessee Tech, with a game-high 17 points. Guinn also had 11 rebounds, four assists, and one steal.
Also scoring in double digits for Oak Ridge were junior Bri Dunbar, who had 14 points, and senior Shatyrah Copeland and sophomore Khamari Mitchell-Steen, who each added 12. Dunbar was 6-of-7 from the free throw line, and she made two three-point shots. Mitchell-Steen pulled down six rebounds, and she had five steals and three assists. Junior Raja Eckles pulled down five rebounds for the Lady Wildcats.
The Lady Hilltoppers were led by Alasia Smith with 15 points and Leila Greenlee with 13. Smith also pulled down 10 rebounds for Science Hill, and Greenlee had five.
The other semifinal game on Friday will feature Riverdale (31-1), which has won the state championship three years in a row, and Houston (30-2). That game will start at 1:15 p.m. (2:15 p.m. Eastern).
More information will be added as it becomes available.
See previous story here.
See the Oak Ridge-Science Hill statistics and play-by-play here.
See the tournament bracket here.
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