Rhea County Wins 47-38 Over East Hamilton And Faces Bradley Central on 2/26/24
Evensville, TN 2/23/24 -- Rhea County played East Hamilton with a chance to advance to 4A Region 3 Semifinals on Friday, 2/23/24 in a game played at Rhea County High School as the Lady Eagles were the higher seed, thanks to finishing 2nd in District 5 4A Tournament last week. The Eagles won the game 47-38 and earned a spot vs the # 1 team in the State, 26-1 Bradley Central at their court on Monday night with a 6 pm tipoff. Bradley won 89-35 over McMinn County on Friday night.
Rhea 47 East Hamilton 38
The first quarter was low scoring, with East Hamilton scoring their first basket with 3;19 left in quarter to cut the Rhea County lead to 7-2. Jenna Burchard and Cammie Ruehling were all the Lady Eagles needed for first quarter offense with Ruehling canning a couple of three point baskets and Burchard going 4-4 from the line as Lady Eagles won the first quarter 10-5
East Hamilton and Rhea County battled pretty even in the second quarter and again, it was Ruehling and Burchard scoring all the points as they divided 8 points evenly between them as the Lady Eagles held on to the lead at 18-14 at the end of two quarters.
The third quarter saw Shaver, Lockhart and Emma Reeves jump in to help out Burchard and Ruehling and together they put up 15 points vs 13 from East Hamilton and Lady Eagles led 33-27 after three quarters. East Hamilton had cut the lead to 29-27 with around the 2 minute mark, but hit a late 3 to widen the lead to 6 after 3 quarters.
The closest East Hamilton could get was 5 points at 39-34 with 4:43 left in the game. The Lady Eagles went on 6-0 run and with two minutes remaining they put the ball in the freezer, forcing East Hamilton to foul down the stretch. Rhea County finished strong for the 47-38 win.
Jenna Burchard led the Lady Eagles with 18 points and Cammie Ruehling and Lakyn Lockhart finished in double figures with 13 and 10 points respectively. Also scoring for Lady Eagles: Emma Reeves 3, Allie Shaver 2 and Kloe Reeves 1.