Problem solved
NORTH LITTLE ROCK 66, CONWAY 56
North Little Rock’s girls eliminated turnovers that hurt them in a loss to Conway last month and took a 6656 victory over the Lady Wampus Cats.
“When you have good guard play like that ... it was a game-changer. I was really impressed with those two players tonight.”
Conway Coach Ashley Hutchcraft on North Little Rock guards Arin and Garin Freeman
Turnovers were a problem for North Little Rock when the Lady Charging Wildcats suffered a 20-point loss at Conway last month.
“We turned it over 27 times,” North Little Rock Coach Daryl Fimple said.
North Little Rock (15-5, 8-2 6A-Central) took better care of the ball Friday night, exponentially better, en route to a 66-56 victory over the No. 5 Lady Wampus Cats at the NLR arena.
Fimple said he knew his team was doing a better job of dealing with Conway’s aggressive pressure defense, even though it committed 10 in the first half and trailed 35-34.
“It was a different kind of turnovers,” Fimple said. “The first time we were turning it over at half court and they were getting layups.
“At least we were turning it over going that way. We thought if we only turn it over 20 times, that’s seven more possessions. And we knew we could give them trouble if they had to play us man.”
NLR scored the first 11 points of the second half to take a 45-35 advantage on a three-pointer by Kalina Foster (14 points) midway through the third quarter.
Conway (15-4, 7-2) cut the lead to 53-47 entering the fourth quarter, but the momentum of the game had changed, with North Little Rock guards Arin Freeman (18 points, 14 in the second half) and younger sister Garin Freeman (9 points, 7 in the second half) playing flawlessly against the Conway pressure in the second half.
Arin Freeman, a senior, completed 3 three-point plays on drives to the basket, while Garin made five consecutive free throws in the fourth quarter to help the Lady Charging Wildcats maintain their lead.
Together, the Freeman sisters scored 21 of their team’s 35 second-half points and NLR ended up committing 14 turnovers, 13 fewer than it did in the previous meeting with Conway.
“Normally we do create turnovers,” Conway Coach Ashley Hutchcraft said. “But those two really came alive in the second half. When you have good guard play like that, and for us, we couldn’t create those turnovers we normally do, it was a game-changer. I was really impressed with those two players tonight.”
Fimple said the Freemans’ play helped North Little Rock overcome the absence of center Amauri Williams, who scored 16 first-half points but spent most of the second half on the bench with foul trouble.
“They had to extend, because they were trying to get more turnovers,” Fimple said of Conway’s defense after NLR seized the lead. “And when they did, it spread you out. We were able to get downhill real quick.”
Conway guard Chloe Clardy scored 23 points, eight in the second half.
“Try to make it as hard as you can on her,” Fimple said of Clardy. “You know she’s going to score. But stick with everybody else and hope she doesn’t score 60, which could be a possibility. Then she got tired.”
“They had a lot more grit than we did,” Hutchcraft said. “We tend to struggle with that a little bit.
“I felt like when they made some big plays, they had momentum. We didn’t do a good job of switching that momentum around.”
BOYS NORTH LITTLE ROCK 74, CONWAY 64
DJ Smith scored 29 points and Kelel Ware added 19 for NLR, and the Charging Wildcats outscored Conway 23-14 in the third quarter to pull away.
North Little Rock (14-2, 8-2 6A-Central) led 30-28 at halftime against Conway (6-9, 5-5), but Smith took over in the second half, scoring 20 points.
He ended up making 13 of 16 from the free-throw line.
Jayden Williams led Conway with 17 points, DJ Lockhart had 10 and Troy Wiseman scored 10.