Bentonville West gets win vs. rival
CENTERTON — Bentonville West’s boys picked up a much-needed 6A-West Conference victory Thursday night. That it was against rival Bentonville made it all the sweeter for the Wolverines.
Bentonville West hit enough big shots, smothered the Tigers defensively and snapped a three-game losing streak with a 38-24 victory inside Wolverine Arena.
“Just a win we had to have,” Bentonville West Coach Greg White said. “In this league you can’t take anything for granted, and we found a way to defend at home.”
The Wolverines scored the first 12 points, highlighted by a pair of three-pointers from Landon Price.
Bentonville got its first basket with 1:58 left in the first quarter from Jayvn Williams, but Bentonville West scored the next seven to go up 19-2 with a three-pointer and two free throws from Ben Van Hecke and a bucket from Lane Jeffcoat.
Williams scored again for Bentonville with 1:53 left in the half to make it 19-4, but Van Hecke and Jeffcoat connected on back-to-back threes for West’s largest lead of the game 25-4.
The Wolverines (8-10, 2-4) led 25-7 at half with Williams scoring all seven of Bentonville’s points.
“I thought we had some decent shots in the first half, but a lot of times when you get behind like that, somebody’s trying to hit an eightpoint shot and it’s just not possible,” Tigers Coach Dick Rippee said. “And sometimes I thought we got away from what makes us good. But give them credit, they took us out of some things and Greg had them ready to play. They were excited and played with great enthusiasm, and they’re a good team — better than us tonight.”
Bentonville (11-9, 3-3) cut the lead to 30-20 early in the fourth quarter on a floater from Owen Derhmann. Jeffcoat answered with a basket inside, followed by a baseline jumper from Price for a 34-20 lead.
Price, a sophomore, put the exclamation point on the Bentonville West victory with an alley-oop dunk from Zahir James in the final seconds.
Jeffcoat led West with 11 points, while Price had 10 and Van Hecke 8. Williams led Bentonville with 11 points with Dehrmann chipping in 9.
“I thought our guys defended,” White said. “That’s what our program is built on is defense, and I thought tonight was the grit we’ve had in the past and we came out and showed it.”
The Wolverines struggled at times on offense as well, but they did hit six three-pointers, including five in the first half.
“Our offensive pace was what we were happy about,” White said. “We loved the pace, and we were getting the shot we wanted at the time we wanted. Make or miss it was what we wanted, so it kept us in a comfortable pace and play.”