WILLARD — Kiersten Bradley went crazy Monday night.
So did Mansfield Senior teammate Ahmani Mitchell.
Bradley scored a game-high 20 points, while Mitchell scored 17 of her 19 points in the fourth quarter as the seventh-seeded Tygers stunned No. 2 Bellevue 66-38 in the Division II sectional championship game at Robert L. Haas Gymnasium.
“She texted me earlier today and told me, ‘I’m going to go crazy,’ ” Senior High coach JeVar Hudgens said. “She said she could feel it and I said I could feel it, too.
“She stepped up and then Ahmani Mitchell played big in the second half.”
Were it not for Bradley, the Tygers (16-7) would have been in all sorts of trouble. The sophomore sharpshooter scored Senior High’s first 10 points before reinforcements arrived. The Tygers trailed 14-12 after the first quarter, but moved in front 20-18 at the half.
“When I make my first couple of shots, I know it’s going to be a good game,” Bradley said. “I knew if I came out hot, my team would feed off my energy.”
Senior High began to take control in the second half behind sophomore Monetta Hilory. The undersized guard dribbled around and through Bellevue’s hallmark pressure and attacked the basket with abandon, either scoring or finding open teammates for easy looks.
Mitchell was the chief beneficiary of Hilory’s handiwork in the fourth quarter. She scored seven straight points in less than a minute, giving Senior High a 51-32 lead on an old-fashioned three-point play with 5:25 to go.
Back-to-back Mitchell layups gave the Tygers a 59-36 lead with 2:34 to go, sealing the deal for the Tygers. She added 11 rebounds to go with her 19 points.
“I noticed that (Bellevue) was small and the boards were right there,” Mitchell said. “The putbacks were easy as long as I got the board.
“When my teammates crashed I was open on the blocks and foul shots were the key.”
The Tygers, who saw big second-half leads slip away on several occasions during the regular season, outscored Bellevue 46-20 in the second half. The Tygers erupted for 29 points in the fourth quarter while limiting Bellevue to 11.
“We figured it out,” Hudgens said of his team’s solid second-half performance. “We had to step our conditioning up a little bit more. We’ve been doing a lot of running and you’re starting to see it pan out for us.”
Hilory backed Bradley and Mitchell with 12 points. She added six rebounds and four assists. Juleah Windham added seven points, nine rebounds and four assists.
Brynn Vogel led Bellevue with 12 points. Dominique Weisz added nine, while Emma Bollinger had seven,.
