BRADLEY MAKES IT OFFICIAL | Former Tatum Eagle signs with Southwestern Christian
It’s gone down in Tatum High School sports history that the last basket JaCorie Bradley scored for the Eagles was in the state championship game – a game he and his teammates won.
That’s a heck of a way to end your high school basketball career.
Bradley put the stamp on that career on Monday, when he signed his letter of intent with Southwestern Christian College, where he’ll resume his education and continue his basketball career.
Bradley was joined by family, coach Brett Carr and staff, faculty and friends on Tuesday for the signing of the LOI.
The senior averaged just north of 21 points a game, seven rebounds a game and five assists per game over 34 games, and the Eagles went 32-2 in 2024-25 along the way to the program’s first-ever state championship in boys basketball.
He and his Eagles teammates went undefeated at home in the 2024-25 season, a 13-0 record. The team won the District 16-3A championship without losing a single district game (12-0). They won 18 straight games to end the season, including a 6-0 playoff run, wins over Mineola, Liberty-Eylau (who had been undefeated prior to playing Tatum), Ponder, Jefferson and in the state semifinals, Iowa Park.
The crowning achievement of them all, of course, was the University Interscholastic League Class 3A, Division I Boys State Championship Game, played at The Alamodome in San Antonio. Bradley and his teammates faced Columbus, a team that had had a shortened season due to their own run to a 3A state football title.
The game had been billed for a week as maybe the closest-matched state title game of any in the UIL’s state lineup this year.
That would NOT be the case.
Bradley had 26 points, five rebounds, three steals and two assists, and teammate Luke Sigler had 26 points as well, and seven rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot, as the Eagles blew by Columbus, 86-49. The Cardinals were held under 50 points by Carr’s Eagles, as Carr pulled the ultimate walk-off: he’s said that was his last game, as he’s retiring from coaching.
Southwestern Christian is in the NJCAA and is in Terrell. The Rams went 6-9 in the North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference and 11-17 overall last season.
Bradley was also the District 16-3A most valuable player this past season, as voted on by the coaches in the district, an honor he achieved three times. He is a two-time winner of the Whataburger / ETBlitz.com Player of the Week award, and three times, he helped Tatum win a Goudarzi & Young / ETBlitz.com Team of the Week award: twice in basketball, once in football.
Bradley was also the Eagles’ starting quarterback, helping them return to the UIL Class 3A, Division I football playoffs, and – in a handful of times in the 2024 season – to the Dave Campbell’s Texas Football 3A top-10 state rankings.