Warriors zone in, finish off Zebras to grab league lead

Little Rock Hall took over sole possession of first place in the 5A-Central Conference standings Tuesday night.

Senior 6-4 guard Greg Johnson scored 7 of his teamhigh 16 points in the fourth quarter as the Warriors turned back Pine Bluff 58-51 at George Cirks Arena.

Hall (17-6, 10-1) employed a stingy zone defense and held Pine Bluff (11-10, 9-2) to 23 shots through the first three quarters in earning its seventh consecutive victory. The Warriors never trailed.

“We just wanted to do it in small bites,” said Hall Coach Jon Coleman, whose team’s last loss was a 64-61 setback on Pine Bluff’s home court. “When we played them the first time we didn’t play any zone, and in this game we didn’t play any man [defense]. We didn’t have one possession of man tonight. We pressed them some the first game. Tonight, anything close to a press was trapping them in the corner.”

Pine Bluff was 12-of-23 shooting through the first three quarters, but the Zebras were guilty of 16 turnovers as the Warriors held a 38-31 lead heading into the final quarter. The Zebras finished 18 of 36 from the floor and with 19 turnovers.

Senior Kaleb Higgins kept Pine Bluff in the game during the final eight minutes. Held to four points in the first half, the 6-0 point guard scored the Zebras’ first 14 points of the fourth quarter. He finished with a game-high 21 points.

“We’ve got to make some baskets from the outside,” said Pine Bluff Coach Billy Dixon, whose team hit only 2 of 9 three-point attempts. “We’ve got to make some buckets. We’ve got to hit some shots to get the juice flowing. … We just never got a flow going.”

Johnson keyed back-toback three-point plays that helped turn a 40-33 advantage into a 46-33 lead with 5:15 remaining. Johnson completed a three-point play at the 5:47 mark and then assisted on a point-blank bucket by Kevon Cooper 32 seconds later.

The Warriors’ lead was sitting at 55-44 with 50.3 seconds left, but the Zebras scored seven consecutive points to cut Hall’s advantage to 55-51. Higgins hit a free throw with 40.4, and backto-back three-point plays from senior forward Berkarian Black and senior guard Darius Morris gave Pine Bluff a chance with 26.1 seconds remaining.

“We had to play faster in the fourth quarter because we were down,” Dixon said. “Nothing was happening, and I told the guys that if we were going to win this game we’ve got to attack the basket.”

“We tried to stay in front of Higgins,” Coleman said. “We didn’t want him dribbling around. He takes almost 90 percent of their shots.”

Johnson responded with two free throws and Higgins missed a running drive inside the lane to kill any chance of a Pine Bluff comeback.

Jonathan Coleman added 12 points for Hall. Black and Morris each scored nine points for Pine Bluff.