Riverside controls tempo to stop Acorn’s win streak

RIVERSIDE 55, ACORN 37

QUITMAN — Acorn entered Tuesday afternoon’s first-round game in the Class 2A state tournament with a 31-4 record and a 14-game winning streak.

Confidence was high, but Coach Mike Jackson said he knew the one thing his Lady Tigers could not do was let Riverside get the lead and control the tempo.

That is exactly what happened.

Riverside, last year’s Class 2A runner-up, scored the last nine points of the first quarter to take a 17-9 lead, and the Lady Rebels added on while spreading their exhausted opponents all over the floor at Quitman High School en route to a 55-37 victory.

Riverside (25-11) advances to a 1 p.m. Friday game against the winner of today’s Flippin-Des Arc first-round game.

Sophomore guard Carolina Hoffman scored 21 points, including 10 of 12 from the foul line. Senior forward Grace Puckett had 12, including 4 of 4 from the line, and Carolina’s older sister Lotti added 10 for Riverside.

Riverside made 14 baskets, all layups except for 2 three-pointers, and 25 of 29 from the line.

“We’ll take the three if you give it to us,” Riverside Coach Spencer Hoffman said. “Threes, layups and free throws. We like them, and we like to control the tempo.”

Jackson said the Lady Rebels didn’t surprise the Lady Tigers with anything they did.

“We knew they were in the finals last year and had everybody back,” Jackson said. “I thought we could play with them, and we should have, if we had shot like we normally do. We rushed some shots. We panicked.”

Hoffman said teams that don’t play against Riverside’s style of spreading the floor in search of layups and fouls can find it exasperating.

“I knew if we got the lead and spread them out, they were not going to like chasing us around,” Hoffman said. “When we’re making you chase us on defense like that, it’s just brutal.”

Trying to contain Carolina Hoffman is no easy task, and when teams try to take her out of the offense, Spencer Hoffman will have her stand off to the side.

“They were denying her,” Spencer Hofffman said. “So I just pull her over there and play four and four.”

Jackson said Acorn’s inability to score early was too much to overcome.

“We didn’t hit the shots we normally hit,” he said. “We got some decent looks. I thought early we took some bad shots, some nervous shots. I think nerves got to us early in the game.”

Nerves are no longer a factor for Carolina Hoffman, a sophomore with more than 70 games of experience at the high school level and hundreds more in summer leagues.

“We play year around,” Spencer Hoffman said. “Out there is like her living room. She understands the game.”

“Threes, layups and free throws. We like them, and we like to control the tempo.”

Riverside Coach Spencer Hoffman