The Tellico Plains Bears continued their hot play on Thursday night as the team thrashed the Greenback Cherokees 62-32 in front of a capacity Homecoming crowd.
The Bears have now won four of their last five after dropping four straight games in late December and early January.

Tellico's overall record is now 11-9 overall, but the district win over the Cherokees pushes the Bears' District 3-A record to 9-3.
Tellico never trailed Greenback and was tied only once.
Thursday's game, which was moved up a day due to the threat of snow and ice moving into the area on Friday, marked the Bears' second-best defensive game of the season in terms of points allowed.

Early in the contest, both defenses dominated the pace and kept the scoring to a minimum.
Donovan McKenzie opened the scoring with a layup 49 seconds into the game, but Greenback answered with a bucket to tie the game moments later.
Two McKenzie free throws and an Eric Croft jumper gave Sweetwater a 6-2 lead, but the Cherokees answered with a field goal.

Neither team scored in the last three minutes of the first quarter and the Bears held a 6-4 lead.
Tellico's offense started to come alive early in the second quarter as the Bears scored the first six points of the period.
Greenback wrapped two free throws and a 3-pointer around a Preston Russell bucket to cut the lead to four points at 13-9.

That was as close as the Cherokees would get.
The Bears closed the half on a 9-0 run to take a commanding 22-9 lead at halftime.
The teams traded buckets throughout the entire third quarter, but two 3-pointers from Cody Atkins, a Josh Stinnett three, and a three-point play by Russell proved to be the difference as Tellico outscored Greenback 20-16 in the quarter.

Tellico led 42-25 heading into the final quarter.
Any thoughts Greenback had of posting a miraculous comeback were immediately dashed as Robert Vandervort opened the fourth quarter with a bucket and Russell followed with another three-point play.

Greenback answered with a three-point play of its own, but the Bears once again had an answer to deflate Greenback's momentum.
An Atkins bucket was followed by seven points from Gage Ingram to wrap up the Tellico starters' night, as they were pulled with 2:13 remaining in the game.

That didn't slow the Bears' scoring as Stinnett scored four points and Vandervort added two more before the final horn as Tellico outscored Greenback 20-7 in the final quarter to produce the final score.

Ingram led Tellico in scoring with 16 points while Atkins and Russell each netted 10 points.
Stinnett finished with nine points, McKenzie recorded eight, and Vandervort finished with four points.
Cheyenne Debty and Croft rounded out the scoring with three and two points, respectively.
Tellico plays at the Tenneessee Scool for the Deaf on Tuesday and at Sequoyah on Friday.