The Oak Ridge Lady Wildcats will play for the District 3-AAA basketball championship against Powell at 6 p.m. Tuesday, February 21, at Clinton High School. The Lady Wildcats are pictured above with Coach Paige Green in the championship game of the Andrew Johnson Bank Ladies Classic in Greeneville on Saturday, Dec. 31, 2016. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
CLINTON—The Oak Ridge Wildcats and Lady Wildcats will both play Powell for District 3-AAA championships today. The girls’ game starts at 6 p.m. Tuesday, February 21, at Clinton High School, and the boys’ game begins at 7:30 p.m.
The Lady Wildcats (25-3) advanced to the championship game by beating Anderson County 61-45 in a District 3-AAA semifinal game at Clinton on Saturday.
It’s the second year in a row that Oak Ridge is playing for the district championship. Last year, the Lady Wildcats won the title by beating Campbell County 52-34 at Anderson County High School. That was their first district championship since 2010.
Oak Ridge went on to play in the state tournament and finished as runner-up in Class AAA.
The Lady Wildcats played the Lady Panthers (20-9) twice during the regular season, and they won both times: 57-38 on December 6, and 59-45 on January 20.
Oak Ridge also defeated Anderson County twice during the regular season: 66-24 on December 9, and 58-23 on January 24.
Oak Ridge was led by sophomore Jada Guinn with 15 points during the win over the Lady Mavericks (14-19) in the District 3-AAA semifinal game on Saturday. Senior Courtney Ellison and junior Mykia Dowdell each had 14.
Sophomore Brooklin McCoy of Anderson County had 15.
Oak Ridge Coach Paige Green said Anderson County made some tough shots and shot well from the perimeter, making eight three-pointers. But the full court press by the Lady Wildcats was effective, and Oak Ridge had balanced scoring, Green said.
Oak Ridge finished the regular season with an undefeated 16-0 district record, and the girls were the top seed in the district tournament. Anderson County was the fifth seed, and Powell was the third seed.
The Anderson County girls went on to upset Campbell County, the number two seed, 51-50 in a third-place game at Clinton on Monday. That was the second upset of the tournament for the Lady Cougars (22-8), who also lost to Powell 57-39 in the other District 3-AAA semifinal game at Clinton on Saturday.
The Lady Mavericks will play in the first round of the Region 2-AAA tournament at William Blount (20-10) at 7 p.m. Friday, February 24. Campbell County will play at Maryville (18-11).
The Wildcats, the top seed in the boys’ tournament, advanced to play Powell (21-8) with a 111-77 win over Clinton, the number five seed, in a boys’ semifinal game at Clinton on Saturday.
Like the Lady Wildcats, the Wildcats (25-2) were also undefeated in District 3-AAA during the regular season, with a 16-0 district record. It’s the second time—and the second year in a row—that the Oak Ridge boys and girls have both gone undefeated in the district in the same season.
Before Saturday’s semifinal win, the Oak Ridge boys had defeated Clinton (12-17) twice, both during the regular season (87-57 on November 29, and 98-44 on January 13). They have defeated Powell twice also (78-68 on December 6, and 99-56 on January 20).
Coming into this district championship game, the Wildcats have been named district champions four years in a row, although the 2015 title comes with an asterisk because it came by default after the game was snowed out.
The Panthers, the number three seed in this year’s tournament, upset Karns, the number two seed, in a 70-57 win in the other District 3-AAA semifinal game at Clinton on Saturday. The Beavers (21-6) went on to beat the Dragons in a third-place game at Clinton on Monday.
Clinton will play at the winner of the Bearden/Maryville championship in District 4-AAA on Saturday night while Karns will travel to the loser of that game, according to WYSH Radio in Clinton.
The winner of the Oak Ridge-Powell girls’ game this evening (Tuesday, February 21) will host Bearden—the fourth-place team out of District 4-AAA—while the loser will entertain Hardin Valley on Friday, WYSH said.
More information will be added as it becomes available.
See the District 3-AAA tournament brackets here. This information was current as of Saturday evening.
See this WYSH Radio story for more information on the Monday night Anderson County-Campbell County girls’ game and Clinton-Karns boys’ game. WYSH Radio is an Oak Ridge Today news partner.
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