Greenwood rallies to down Bentonville

GREENWOOD 56, BENTONVILLE 47

GREENWOOD — The Greenwood Lady Bulldogs unwrapped a rally going into the Christmas break.

The Lady Bulldogs rallied from 10 points down in the second half to beat Bentonville 56-47 on Tuesday night at H.B. Stewart Arena in the final nonconference game before the mandatory Arkansas Activities Association threeday dead period.

Greenwood (8-3) will play in the Beebe Tournament on Dec. 28-30.

Bentonville (4-5) will play in the Gravette Tournament on Dec. 27-29.

On Tuesday, Bentonville led 29-19 with 5:21 left in the third quarter on the fourth of seven three-pointers by Ella Campbell and still led 38-33 with 7:17 left in the game on a jumper by Allison Disheroon.

Greenwood went on a 7-0 run, capped by Greenwood’s first three-pointer of the game with 5:15 left by Carley Sexton.

Campbell hit two three-pointers in a 19-second span to put Bentonville back up 44-41 with 4:13 left.

The Lady Bulldogs answered with a 13-0 run to take control of the game.

Mady Cartwright started the scoring spree with a three-pointer from the corner and drove for a bucket to a 46-44 lead. Anna Trusty scored inside, Megan Gray made two free throws, Trusty converted a fastbreak layup, and Cartwright hit two free throws for a 54-44 cushion with 55 seconds left.

“The defense kept us in the game until we hit some shots,” Greenwood Coach Clay Reeves said. “The first half, nothing we were trying was going good. Our kids were trying hard, but nothing was going good.”

Turnovers were the difference in the game for Bentonville, suffering 31 for the game.

“When you give up shots like that and give Greenwood extra possessions, they’re going to beat you every time,” Bentonville Coach Tom Halbmaier said. “We’re better than that.”

Greenwood forced six turnovers in the third quarter and 12 in the final quarter.

“We played hard on defense,” Reeves said. “The kind of defense we play, every once in a while it looks like we’re not playing defense. We do gamble and extend and different things. Every once in a while it gets us out of position. I want our kids to relax and play on defense.”

Cartwright finished with 25 points, including 20 in the second half, and was 10 of 11 from the free-throw line. Trusty added 18 points. Sexton had seven points, all in the fourth quarter, and eight rebounds.

Campbell scored 23 points for Bentonville. Jada Brown had nine. Sam Rhuda had 10 rebounds.