The Sevier Co. Bears had a chance to play Cinderella in the opening round of the District 4-AAA tournament Saturday but couldn’t keep up with Knoxville West in the second half and ended their season with the 61-40 loss. West had dropped their last meeting with Sevier Co. ten days ago and seemed ripe for the 8th seeded Bears to upset.
SCHS went down early 5-0 on scores by Anthony Bennett and Larry Williford. The Rebels then began to struggle with the Sevier Co. pressure. They could get the ball into the front court, but found themselves out of sync and settled for missing badly on long jumpers. The Bears climbed back into the game at 7-7 on a trey by Andy Ottolini and went to half trailing by one at 10-9. Ottolini accounted for seven of those nine while Brian Furst went to the foul line twice after being fouled in the paint to get the rest.
West applied their own pressure and used back to back steals resulting in lay ups to build the lead out to their biggest of the half at 21-13. Philip Chaney canned a three ten seconds later to bring it back to five. All-District guard Brett Book followed a one-point trip by West by hitting two of his three charity tosses after being fouled attempting a three in front of the West bench. Ottolini closed the half with a baseline jumper. West had managed to hold on to a 25-20 lead.
West was a much more physical team in the second half. With their jump shots not falling, the Rebels were 0 for 8 in the first half behind the arc, they took the ball inside in the second. The Bears couldn’t find an answer, scraping two ten point quarters while the Rebels topped twenty both times.
Midway through the third, West had built the lead to eleven at 35-24. The Bears run didn’t go far. Furst grabbed on offensive board and got the put back bucket to put the margin back to single digits, but when the Rebels fouled rather than allow steals to turn into uncontested lay ups, Sevier Co. blinked at the line hitting only one of four attempts. West took that as a sign to run and closed the quarter on a 12-3 spurt to lead 47-30.
The Bears didn’t help their cause in the fourth from the foul line, goose-egging 0-5, while the Rebels were a perfect 6 of 6. Book hit a three to open the quarter and Ottolini closed the game with a bomb, but in between the Bears had just two scores. With 4:16 left, West got their first and only three of the night on a Jay Baugues jumper.
Ottolini finished with 14 and Book 11 while Furst hit for ten. Chaney ended the night with five points.
West spread their scoring across the roster with only Anthony Bennett getting double digits at 11. The Rebels move on to the second round to face William Blount. The fourth seeded Governors had a bye for the opening round and had a narrow 48-47 loss to West on February 12 that triggered a three game stagger to close their regular season. Blount dropped games with Alcoa and Campbell County after losing at West.

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