The Tellico Plains Lady Bears checked one goal off their to-do list on Thursday night in dominating fashion, downing the Greenback Lady Cherokees 76-46 and clinching the District 3-A regular season championship in the process.

The ninth-ranked Lady Bears ran their record to 17-2 overall and 11-0 in the district.
Tellico has one district game remaining against Harriman on Feb. 12, but every other District 3-A team has at least two district losses, giving the Lady Bears the regular season title in their inaugural year in the new district.

Though the outcome was never in doubt, the Lady Bears did not have their best game of the season, especially early in the contest.
Sarah McKinnon opened the game with a free throw and field goal while Sheann Cole, who scored a game-high 25 points, added another field goal to push the lead to 5-0 two minutes into the game.
However, the fouls added up early on for the Lady Bears and Greenback took advantage.
The Lady Cherokees outscored Tellico 7-2 in the middle stages of the first quarter to tie the game at 7-7.

But Jessi Parson and the Lady Bears had an answer for that scoring spurt as a Parson three-point play gave Tellico a spark of energy and the Lady Bears scored 15 straight points to end the first quarter and take a 22-7 lead.
Kristian Moses shot her way out of a slump and recorded eight of her 19 total points during that span. 

Greenback could shave only one point off their deficit before Tellico found its rhythm on the offensive end in the second quarter.
Cole started an 11-5 run that lasted nearly four minutes to go up by 20 at 37-17 with 3:03 left in the first half.

However, both teams had trouble scoring from that point and each managed just two free throws to end the first half and keep the gap at 20 points.
The Lady Bears wasted no time expanding their lead in the third quarter as McKinnon, who sat out most of the first half due to foul trouble, started the scoring and Parson scored the next six Lady Bear points.

Only a Greenback 3-pointer interrupted that stretch as that shot and two free throws sandwiched a Parson score.
That's when the Tellico frontcourt took over as Cole and Moses combined for 12 points and the Tellico defense held Greenback to six points for the remainder of the quarter to give the Lady Bears a 59-30 lead at the end of the third quarter.
The teams played almost even throughout the fourth quarter, but the Lady Bears still had outscored Greenback 17-16 in the final period to produce the final score.

Moses and Parson were the only other Lady Bears to score in double figures as they each chipped in 17 points.
Parson also gathered nine rebounds.
McKinnon finished with eight points while Mary Hooper and Olivia Crowder each scored four points.
Hannah Burrell rounded out the scoring with one point.
The Lady Bears will get an extended break to prepare for county rival Sequoyah on Friday.
That will mark the last road game in the regular season for the Lady Bears.

Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.