Quitman aims to slow down Melbourne
Quitman Coach Tim Hooten confessed that from the time the season kicked off in November his team has had aspirations of winning another state championship, but he felt for that to happen, the Lady Bulldogs would have to go through Melbourne at some point in the postseason.
That time has come.
“We’ve known all year that Melbourne would be at the end of the road,” said Hooten, whose team will face the defending Class 2A girls champions at 6 p.m. today in the state final at Bank OZK Arena in Hot Springs. “They were very good last year, but they’re much improved from what they were then, and we’ve known that all along. But my girls have been good about taking it one game at a time because I really preach that.
“That’s the approach we live by, but everything we’ve done has led us to this point. We’ve been working to give [Melbourne] a challenge at state.”
Melbourne (33-2) and Quitman (30-3) were ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, by the
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette before the postseason started, and the two will end up that way. Their order of finish remains to be seen, but Hooten knows taking down the reigning queens of their class won’t be easy.
The Lady Bearkatz have bowled over most of their opponents and are currently on a 23-game winning streak. Sophomore guard Kenley McCarn has posted huge scoring numbers throughout the season, and freshman center Jenna Lawrence has controlled things inside — all while getting consistency from junior guards Kiley Webb and Josie Roark and senior forward Dani Hardaway.
“We’ve been pretty much focused all year,” Melbourne Coach Eric Teague said. “We’ve had some close games, but people are playing hard against us. Still, the kids just seem to have a knack for winning, and it seems like they just will not allow themselves to get beat.”
Teague explained that getting his current group to play at a high level on a nightly basis was somewhat of a chore at the start. Melbourne lost three pivotal players from last year’s team, including championship game MVP Reagan Rapert. The junior transferred to Union (Mo.) in the offseason but not before leading the Lady Bearkatz to their first state title in 46 years.
“It was tough getting the new kids adjusted to everything at first,” Teague said. “They had to get into the rhythm of the game and truly understand their roles on the team. But I think they’re doing a good job of that now.”
Quitman, which won the 2A state title in 2017 and was runner-up in 2018, has been using a similar balanced attack to win 28 of its past 29 games. All five starters, led by seniors Autumn Johnson, Halle Bennett, Lucie Holland and Carson Rackley, scored in double digits at different times at last week’s state tournament.
Hooten said that since his team isn’t overly big, it has to compensate by bearing down defensively.
“We have to play aggressively,” he said. “We play good man-to-man defense because I’m not a big guy for zones. I don’t have a big team at all, so we try to pick you up full court and use our speed and quickness to the best of our advantage.”
To slow down Melbourne, the Lady Bulldogs would also like to get the ball inside, but Hooten anticipates that being tough because of the Lady Bearkatz’s size.
“I’ve got a pretty good center to power it in to, but it’s gonna be hard to do that,” he said. “When you’re 5-9 as a center going up against a 6-1, 6-2, it’s a huge difference. So we’re gonna have a different offensive strategy than what we’ve had in the past.”
Teague likes what he’s seen from his team all year, yet he’s not taking anything for granted, especially not Quitman.
“They play hard, they’re going to get after you, and they’re not gonna back down,” he said. “You’re not gonna intimidate them. They may not have been in the final last year, but they’ve been there before.
“We’ve got to try to contain them and be able to match the physicality that they play with in order to pull it out.”