Blytheville pulls away, beats Farmington
BLYTHEVILLE 65, FARMINGTON 53
BLYTHEVILLE — Blytheville will get a chance to right a wrong thanks to a monster outing from its big man and a mad dash late to beat previously undefeated Farmington.
The Chickasaws scored the game’s final 11 points pull away for a 65-53 victory in front of a standing-room only crowd Saturday during the semifinals of the Class 4A boys state tournament.
The final push was especially gratifying for Blytheville (34-1), which has been longing to get back to the state final after finishing runner-up a year ago to Magnolia. After Saturday’s riveting comeback, the Chickasaws won’t have to wait any longer.
“The day we woke up after that state championship game, I remember we got back in here, went in the locker room and wrote on the board that we were coming back the 2022-2023 state champs,” Blytheville Coach McKenzie Pierce said. “It’s been on that board in there all year. So every day we came in during the summer and didn’t really feel like doing anything, we looked at that board.”
The Chickasaws did a lot against the Cardinals, starting with Rashaud Marshall.
The 6-9 center finished with 19 points, 14 rebounds and 5 blocks for Blytheville, which trailed by as many as six points midway through the third quarter. KeSean Washington had 16 points, and Jeremiah Wells, whose three-pointer with 3:13 to go in the game jump-started the Chickasaws’ closing 11-point run, added 15 points. T.J. Jackson also contributed with 8 points, 4 rebounds and 3 steals.
Layne Taylor scored a game-high 26 points, including 19 during a blistering first half to help give Farmington (35-1) a 33-29 lead at halftime. Caleb Blakely followed with 11 points, while both Jaxon Berry and Josh Blakely each chipped in 8.
The Cardinals led 40-34 with less than five minutes to go in the third until a three-pointer from Wells began a rally that ended with Blytheville leading 50-49 after three quarters. Farmington was still within 54-53 following a jumper from Taylor with five minutes remaining in the game, but that’d be the last field goal the Cardinals would make.
“We kind of felt like we should’ve been up by about 10 points in that fourth quarter,” Pierce explained. “We took some bad shots, didn’t give the big fella the ball enough, kind of had some loose-ball fast break stuff that we should’ve converted, had some turnovers. … But the defensive intensity picked up quite a bit. We knew Layne was gonna hit some shots early, but we just wanted to continue to stay in it and try to get in his legs and hope by the fourth quarter that he’d wear down.”
Blytheville, on the other hand, didn’t wither and because of that, it’ll get a shot to capture a championship against Little Rock Christian.
“Job’s not done,” Pierce said. “We’re going to have a helluva matchup Thursday at 1:45 p.m. in Hot Springs. There’s no guarantees so we’ve got to be ready to go.”
LITTLE ROCK CHRISTIAN 66, DARDANELLE 49
Ben Fox followed up Friday’s 21-point outing with a 17-point, 7-rebound, 3-steal effort Saturday as Little Rock Christian (26-8) advanced to the title game.
Landren Blocker had 17 points and 10 rebounds, and J.J. Andrews collected 17 points and 7 rebounds for the Warriors, who held the Sand Lizards to four points in the final quarter.
Braden Tanner had 23 points, and Robert Millard added 10 for Dardanelle (30-6). The Sand Lizards were down 52-45 at the end of the third but missed their first six shots of the fourth quarter and didn’t score their first points until Tanner’s steal and lay-up with 3:12 left in the game.