Lady Eagles Go 3-1 With Loss to Bearden After Wins over McMinn, Oak Ridge and Ooltewah
Evensville, Tennessee -- Rhea County dropped their game to Bearden to drop their record on a 4-game recent run to open February for a 3-1 beginning to February 2026. Lady Eagles began their four game stretch at Oak Ridge and then on the road at Ooltewah before returning home for games vs McMinn and Bearden. Lady Eagles went 3-0 vs Oak Ridge, Ooltewah and McMinn and lost at home vs Bearden to end the four game stretch.
Rhea used a 23-19 fourth quarter to take the 7-point win at Oak Ridge. Jenna Burchard and Raylee Fuller went for double figures in the win with 16 and 14 points respectively. Evayla Mitchell led Oak Ridge with 29 and Jenayah Pippins added 13 points for Oak Ridge.
| Team | First | Second | Third | Fourth | Final |
| Rhea | 12 | 11 | 14 | 23 | 60 |
| Oak Ridge | 14 | 10 | 10 | 19 | 53 |
- Rhea: Burchard 16, Fuller 14, Brown 5, Lovelady 1, Sharp 9, Reeves 9
- Oak Ridge: Odonnell 2, E. Mitchell 29, Thompson 3, Eubanks 4, Lawing 1, Poppins 12, A. Mitchell 3
Rhea 50 Ooltewah 49
Rhea vs Ooltewah was a barn burner with Lady Owls getting a couple of attempts off for the win, but horn sounded and Lady Eagles celebrated the 50-49 win as Lady Eagles came back from a 38-32 deficit to begin the 4th quarter. Lady Eagles outscored Ooltewah 12-5 in the 4th to seccure the win. Last couple of minutes saw Burchard the go-a-head basket on a nice drive from halfcourt for the 50-49 lead and Jaslyn Butler come with big block on last second shot.
| Team | First | Second | Third | Fourth | Final |
| Rhea | 8 | 11 | 13 | 12 | 50 |
| Ooltewah | 14 | 10 | 14 | 5 | 49 |
- Rhea: Fuller 5, Brown 3, Butler 6, Burchard 26, Lovelady 2, Sharp 3, Kelly 2, Reeves 3
- Ooltewah: LeBlanc 7, Barker 6, taylor 22, Williams 2, Aaron 2, Tipton 10
Rhea 67 McMinn 43
Rhea County jumped on McMinn early and took 17-8 first quarter lead. McMinn stayed within 10 until a 16-8 3rd quarter pushed the lead to 20 after 3 quarter and Lady Eagles extracted reveange for the loss to the Lady Cherokees earlier this season. Burchard and Butler each tallied 22 points and Jetta Sharp added 11 points as 3 Lady Eagles made double figures for the game.
| Team | First | Second | Third | Fourth | Final |
| McMinn | 8 | 14 | 8 | 13 | 43 |
| Rhea | 17 | 17 | 16 | 17 | 67 |
- Rhea :Burchard 22, Butler 22, Sharp 11, Kelly 9, Brown 2, Reeves 1
- McMinn: Trentham 8, Sewell 8, Fields 7, Hennessee 5, Coffie 4, Skikmore 2, McKonkey 8, Cardin 1
Bearden 77 Rhea 60
Bearden brought a very good team to Evensville with a 24-3 season record and the defending Knoxville Player-of-the-Year in Natalya Hodge, who has committed to Missouri University. Hodge put up 26 to lead Bearden in the win. Jaslyn Butler led the Lady Eagles with 19 points.
| Team | First | Second | Third | Fourth | Final |
| Bearden | 15 | 13 | 8 | 5 | 41 |
| Rhea | 28 | 18 | 22 | 9 | 77 |
- Rhea: Landree Brown 2, Jaslyn Butler 19, Jenna Burchard 9, Jetta Sharp 7, Abigayle Kelly 3, Kloe Reeves 1.
- Bearden: Hodge 26, Hunt 11, corum 3, Lemarbre 10, Myers 6, Rainy 14, Nesbit 2, Ferraris 1, Mills 2, foster 2