Catholic holds on, tops Cabot

Little Rock Catholic got off to a slow start Friday, not scoring for the first 3:10. But the Rockets eventually took the lead with less than a minute to go in the first half and held on for a 43-32 Class 7A-Central victory over Cabot in the conference opener for both teams Friday night.

The Rockets (7-6, 1-0) made only 48.2 percent of their free throws (14-29) but Cabot (12-3, 0-1) didn’t get to the line until the fourth quarter, making 5 of 7 free throws and letting Catholic take the victory.

“We try to attack and get to the line as much as we can,” Catholic Coach Tim Ezzi said. “That was one of the things in the game plan we talked about and the kids did a pretty good job. We didn’t plan on missing that many free throws, but we did enough to put it away at the end.”

The Rockets managed only 6 points in the first quarter, hitting 2 of 4 free throws and 2 field goals. The Panthers stopped the Rockets cold early in the first quarter but Catholic found its range in the second quarter and held on for a two-point edge, 18-16, at the half thanks to a buzzer-beating three-pointer from Charles Daniel.

The second half was more of the same. Catholic attacked the Cabot defense, making enough free throws and getting a couple of three-pointers to provide the Rockets with a 31-23 lead after three quarters and still without putting the Panthers on the free-throw line.

“We did a good job,” Ezzi said. “We tried to play handsfree and not get ourselves in foul trouble because they are a good shooting free-throw team.

“Offensively, we talked about trying to attack them. We try to do that in our program, especially this week, to get the ball on the inside by the pass or the dribble.”

Josh Dawson scored 11 to lead the Rockets while Phillips Allison and Daniel added 8. Braxton Funk and John Chase scored 7 each. Landon Vaught led the Cabot attack with 8 while Noah Allgood added 7.