Clarkrange Teams Win Over Bledsoe County, Split With Jackson Co.

The Clarkrange Lady Buffaloes took a commanding lead in the first half over a solid Class AA Bledsoe County team  in a non-conference game on Tuesday last week but had to hold on in the second half, as  the Lady Warriors mounted a strong comeback.

Clarkrange took an 11-4 first period lead and extended that lead to 25-13 at the half, only to see Bledsoe come back to cut the lead to 10 going into the final frame, 39-28, and mount a strong comeback effort in the final period, outscoring the Lady Buffaloes 21-16 to pull to within 5 points.

Carly Dickens led the scoring with 21 points to help her team post their 20th win of the season, while Suzie Cooper added 14, Brittany Cooper 12, and Kathrine Delk and Brittany Rains had 4 points each.

Clarkrange connected on five 3-pointers in the contest, with Suzie Cooper getting 3 and Delk and Rains with one each.

In the boys’ game, the Buffaloes took an 18-7 first period lead and never looked back at they defeated a solid Warrior team 50-40 to post their 13th win of the year.

Cody Henry paced the Buffaloes with 15 points on five 3-pointers, with Chase Beaty adding 10 points, and Taylor Edwards and Garrett Stults each had 9 points.

On Friday night, the Clarkrange gym was packed with spectators for the District 7-A showdown between the Clarkrange and Jackson County teams.

The girls’ matchup pitted two of Tennessee’s top-ranked teams, No. 3 Jackson County and No. 7 Clarkrange, and for the first half, it was the battle that everyone thought it would be, before the Lady Blue Devils pulled away with a strong second half effort to post a 54-35 win.

Clarkrange drew first blood as Brittany Cooper drove in for a layup and then hit two free throws to give the Lady Buffaloes a 4-0 advantage, and Clarkrange led by as many as five points in the first period before Jackson County came back to close the gap to 9-8 going into the second period.

The Lady Blue Devils opened the second period with four straight points on baskets by Brooklyn Apple and Jaycee Coe to take the lead 12-9, but Brittany Rains tied it at 12-12, and midway through the period Lindsey Crabtree hit her only basket of the game to tie the score at 15-15, before Jackson County went on a 4-0 run to close the half with a 19-15 advantage.

McKenzie Hensley gave Jackson County a 23-15 advantage before Suzie Cooper connected on a trey and then made a driving layup to cut the margin back to 23-20 with just under 6 minutes to go in the third period.

Jackson County extended their lead to 11 before Cooper went on another 5-point run to cut the margin back to six with just over 2 minutes left in the period.  Cooper scored 10 of her team-high 12 points and all but one of her team’s points in the third period.

The Lady Blue Devils then went on a 5-0 run of their own, on a 3-pointer by Hope Scantland and a jumper by Caroline Warden with 2 seconds on the clock to give Jackson County the 11-point lead back at 37-25 going into the final frame.

Scantland opened up the fourth period with another three, which led to a run which saw the Jackson County team pull out to a 21-point lead at one point before settling on the 54-35 win.

Following the game, an obviously disappointed Coach Lamar Rogers commented:  “We just had missed opportunities.  They just played better and we had too many mistakes.  We’ll just have to make adjustments and get ready for the tournament and hope we run into them again.”

In addition to Suzie Cooper’s 12 points, Carly Dickens added 10 points, including 6 in the final period, Brittany Cooper had 6, Brittany Rains 5, and Lyndsey Crabtree 2 points.

Jaycee Coe led Jackson County with 17 points, with McKenzie Hensley adding 12, Hope Scantland with 9, and Carolyn Warden and Brooklyn Apple with 8 points each.

With the win, Jackson County improved to 17-6 and remained perfect at 5-0 in the District, while Clarkrange droped to 20-5 and 5-2 in the district, with their only district losses coming from Jackson County.

In the boys’ game, it was close for a quarter before Clarkrange blew the game open with a 16-5 second quarter run, and never looked back, as they  opened up a double-digit lead which they held for most of the rest of the game, and winning 47-38.

Chase Beaty had six points  and Garrett Stults added 4 in the first period to lead Clarkrange to an 10-8 lead.

In the second period, Taylor Edwards got six of his eight points in the contest to lead Clarkrange to a 26-13 halftime advantage. 

The Buffaloes went up by as many as 15 points in the second half before the Blue Devils made a brief run to cut the lead to the final margin of 9 points, 47-38.

Chase Beaty led the Buffaloes with 10 points, with Chad Henry adding 9, Taylor Edwards 8, Garrett Stults 7, Cody Henry 6, Jacob Masters 5, and Andrew Norman with 2 points.

Brent Davidson paced Jackson County with 16 points, with Ethan Kirby adding 9.

With the win, Clarkrange improved to 15-11 overall and 5-2 in the district, while Jackson County dropped to 9-14 and 1-4 in the district.

This week, the Clarkrange teams were scheduled to be on the road to Sunbright on Monday, before coming back home on Tuesday for their final regular-season home game with Oliver Springs for Senior Night.

They will then have more than a week off before finishing the season on the road at Clay County on February 9 at Clay County in their final district game, and then go to Stone memorial on Saturday, February 11.

The District 7-A Tournament will be held February 14-18 at Livingston Academy.