The Oak Ridge Lady Wildcats will play in a district semifinal girls basketball game tonight (Friday, February 19).
Oak Ridge (18-4) will play Clinton (9-12). The game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. in Wildcat Arena at Oak Ridge High School.
The winner will play for the District 3-AAA championship on Monday.
The game will be broadcast on WCAT Live on YouTube, Channel 15 on Comcast cable television, and online at http://Prepradio.com.
The Lady Wildcats finished the regular season undefeated in the district, 14-0. It was their first undefeated regular season in the district since the 2016-2017 season. However, they only had one district loss in each of the past three seasons, including both the regular season and playoffs, defeated by Powell once and Campbell County twice.
Besides being undefeated in the district this year, Oak Ridge also won four non-district games, with victories against Kingston, Hardin Valley, Alcoa, and Fulton. Their only losses were non-district games against Stone Memorial, Knoxville Catholic, and Cleveland twice, according to records kept by CoachT.com.
The Oak Ridge girls defeated Clinton twice this year, with both games played in January. The first win was by more than 40 points (72-30) at Wildcat Arena on January 14, and the second was by more than 20 points (56-32) at Clinton on January 29.
Powell (14-3) will host Halls (16-8) in the other District 3 semifinal game this evening. The Lady Panthers beat the Lady Red Devils twice in January, 57-50 during the first game and 71-60 in the second.
Oak Ridge defeated Powell twice this season (58-56 and 55-46), and they also beat Halls twice (71-45 and 66-42).
If Oak Ridge advances to the district championship, it will be their sixth consecutive trip there. In the past five seasons, the Lady Wildcats beat the Lady Panthers of Powell in two district championships and defeated Campbell County three times.
The Lady Wildcats made it to a Region 2-AAA semifinal game last year, to a Class AAA state semifinal game in 2019, to a Class AAA sectional in 2018, to a state quarterfinal game in 2017, and to the state championship game in 2016.
As of February 5, Oak Ridge senior Khamari Mitchell-Steen had 500 points this season, 195 rebounds, and 110 steals, according to Wildcats radio broadcaster David Clary. She scored her 1,705th career point in early February, becoming the sixth-highest scoring player in Oak Ridge history.
Mitchell-Steen was named most valuable player for District 3 this month. In a social media post nominating Mitchell-Steen for Miss Basketball in January, Oak Ridge Coach Paige Taylor said Mitchell-Steen was averaging 27.33 points, 9.5 rebounds, 5.75 steals, and 3.75 assists per game. At that time, she had 1,585 career points, 492 career rebounds, 209 career assists, 339 career steals, 104 career made three-point shots, and 98 career wins.
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