If Mt. Juliet wants a trip to the BlueCross Basketball Championships next week in Murfreesboro, the Lady Bears must win a TSSAA sectional game at Antioch High Saturday.

Mt. Juliet came out on the short end of a 63-46 decision to powerful Clarksville High in Wednesday night’s Region 5AAA championship game at Northeast High.

Clarksville High improved to 35-0 on the season while Mt. Juliet dropped to 31-4 -- snapping a five game Mt. Juliet High winning streak.

The Lady Wildcats opened the game smoking and vaulted to an 18-9 first quarter lead, only to see Mt. Juliet get untracked and cut the margin to 27-21 at intermission.

Clarksville padded its lead by outscoring Mt. Juliet 17-12 in the third, taking a 44-33 advantage into the final eight minutes.

“If we had rebounded better, we would have been able to stay with them,” said MJ head coach Chris Fryer. “I feel like we let their post defenders shove us around a little. We didn’t do a very good job of sealing them off.”

University of Tennessee signee Bashaara Graves led a trio of Clarksville High players in double figures with 25 points.

Jessy Ward and Chandler Cooper each fired in three 3-pointers and finished with 13
points apiece.

Freshman guard Jamasha “MeMe” Jackson led Mt. Juliet with 17 points. MTSU signee Caya Williams was limited to 15 points. Sally McCabe scored eight while Paige Baugher and Helen Mitchner scored three points apiece.