Warriors roll
Trey Jones scored 10 of his gamehigh 17 points in the third quarter and also had nine assists as Little Rock Christian defeated Little Rock Hall 66-44.
Little Rock Christian Coach Clarence Finley didn’t sound like a winner Friday night at Cirks Arena.
“I wasn’t pleased about anything,” Finley said. “I’m sorry, but we didn’t play as we wanted to play. I thought we weren’t strong with the ball, we started to coast a little bit too early and we just didn’t execute.”
Yet it was Little Rock Christian that rolled past Little Rock Hall 66-44, leaning on its outside game to build a comfortable margin — the Warriors shot 6 of 11 from beyond the arc in the first half — and cruise to a fourth consecutive victory.
Trey Jones did the majority of his damage in the third quarter, scoring 10 of his game-high 17 points in the period on 6 shots. The senior point guard added nine assists and five boards to set the pace for the visitors.
Little Rock Christian sophomore Ben Fox scored 13 on the strength of 3 three-pointers, and sophomore Scottie Hightower and senior Colin Cooper each logged a dozen as Little Rock Christian (125, 2-2 5A-Central) moved to .500 in conference play after dropping its first two league games to Sylvan Hills and Little Rock Parkview.
Once again, the Warriors found themselves playing without one of their stars. After Creed Williamson missed the Sylvan Hills game due to injury, the Warriors were sans sophomore standout Layden Blocker against Hall (1-5, 0-2).
Finley said Blocker, who was in a walking boot Friday, sprained his ankle earlier in the week at practice and will be sidelined for at least two weeks.
That set the stage for Jones to step up.
“I was just listening to Coach, letting the play open up,” Jones said of his outing. “[The assists were a result of] my teammates getting open and just finding the right guy.”
It looked early like Hall’s aggressive driving and spread offense might give Little Rock Christian some issues.
But despite getting to the rim with ease, Hall struggled to finish — the host Warriors managed just eight points in the opening quarter on 13 shots. And thanks to missed layups and sloppy offense, Little Rock Christian got out in transition, pushing the ball up the floor and finding guys such as Fox and Cooper for easy buckets.
“I thought our transition offense was good … and that was the difference in the game,” Finley said.
After losing to Parkview, Little Rock Christian went 11 days without a conference game, picking up wins at White Hall and Morrilton. But the Warriors knew this week would be a tune-up for what’s to come in the next two weeks.
They’ll host Benton on Tuesday night before three consecutive matchups against the top three teams in the 5A-Central — rematches with Sylvan Hills and Parkview, followed by a Feb. 12 game against Maumelle.
“We’ve got to be more physical and stronger with the ball,” Finley said. “Yes, we can compete with anybody in the conference. Yes, we can compete with anybody in the state. But we’ve got to play better.”