Rhea County Senior Basketball Players Pose at Senior Night 2026.(Photo:GaryBolden)

Lady Eagles play 6:00 pm Game vs Oak Ridge at McMinn County High School

Athens, TN -- Rhea County High School basketball ended the season with some big wins and fashioned a 5th place finish to avoid the play in game and will open 4A District 4 play on Tuesday, February 17th with 6:00 pm tipoff vs Oak Ridge, a team the recently beat 60-53, the first every win by a Lady Eagle team over Oak Ridge. In that game the Lady Eagles outshot the Lady Cats from the line by margin of 16-7 and netted a 6 to 4 advantage from the 3-point line to offset a 17-13 deficit from 2-point range. Lady Eagles coach Vest knows that the other game did not go that well in the January 9, 2026, matchup as, Oak Ridge won over Rhea County. The Oak Ridge Lady Wildcats defeated Rhea 72-53, led by Evelyn Mitchell's 22 points. Lady Eagles were playing without Butler in that game.

Rhea will be leaning on their twin posts Burchard and Butler to lead the way against the high scoring Mitchell, who is averaging around 25 point-per-game pace this year. Hardin Valley, who won over McMinn in the play-in game on Monday night will play Lenior City, the # 3 seed in the tournament. Awaiting tonight's winners will be # 2 Farragut for Lenoir City-Hardin Valley winner and Bearden for the Rhea County-Oak Ridge winner. Bearden is the top team in district with 26 wins against 3 losses. They were challenged in their recent clash with Cleveland, getting a 56-53 win.