Maumelle, Greene finally wear down Jacksonville

Patrick Greene’s shooting was on the money when it mattered most Wednesday night.

Greene, a 6-2 junior guard, made two key three-pointers and two free throws in the fourth quarter, propelling the Maumelle Hornets to a 75-64 victory over the visiting Jacksonville Titans in a 6A/5A-4 contest.

Greene’s 21-footer from the top of the key with 6:30 remaining tied the game at 53-53 and his 22-footer from the left side two minutes later started an 8-0 swing that gave the Hornets the separation they needed.

Greene finished with a team-high 20 points.

“I was actually talking to [assistant] coach [Trey] Lightfoot right before he hit that [first three-pointer] ‘man, we really need Pat to step up and hit a couple of threes right here,’ ” Maumelle Coach Michael Shook said. “Within five seconds, the one from the top of the key was knocked down. And a couple of possessions later, he knocked down another one.”

The two teams exchanged leads eight times in the second half, but Maumelle (15-2, 5-0) outscored Jacksonville 25-10 in the game’s final 6:53. The Hornets hit 9 of 15 from the floor in the fourth quarter, while Jacksonville (8-7, 3-2) was 5 of 13.

“Fatigue,” said Jacksonville assistant Brandon Weems, who was filling in for ailing head Coach Victor Joyner. “We got a little winded. It was hard to go deep down the bench at that point. Maumelle is the type of team that makes you play deep on your bench and we weren’t really able to do that tonight.”

Of Maumelle’s nine fourth-quarter field goals, seven of them came thanks to assists.

“I was really pleased with my fourth-quarter group,” Shook said. “I talked to the guys in the locker room about the percentage of buckets we had assists on in the fourth quarter. We got away from that me, me, me stuff and really played team ball.”

John Word and Darius Tate each had four assists for the Hornets. Ibrahim Ali led Maumelle in rebounding with eight, while Word collected seven. Tate, who also had a three-pointer during the fourth quarter, finished with 12 points and Tremont Robinson scored 11.

Jacksonville lost despite a solid effort from senior guard Tyree Appleby, who scored a game-high 22 points to go with 2 assists and 2 steals.

“He’s a tough player and one of the most competitive players I’ve ever coached,” Weems said of Appleby, who scored nine points in the fourth quarter. “He’s going to fight through anything. He had three fouls early in the second quarter, but I couldn’t take him off the floor.”

“Appleby is phenomenal,” Shook said. “We couldn’t stay in front of him and when we tried to back off, he knocked shots down.”

Senior Dajuan Ridgeway added 12 points for Jacksonville, while junior Christian White scored 8 points to go along with a team-high 8 rebounds.