Patriots right ship, take over vs. Mets
“I think our group is probably realizing it is the time that you are really playing for something. So we needed this game to kind of get the other game that we just lost out of our system.”
Little Rock Parkview Coach Scotty Thurman after Friday’s victory over eStem
Coming off a bad loss at Vilonia on Tuesday, the Little Rock Parkview Patriots found the right elixir in the eStem Mets on Friday night.
Once the Patriots moved past a spirited early effort from the Mets they rolled to a 77-50 victory in a game played at Arkansas School for the Deaf’s Nutt Fieldhouse.
That victory left the Patriots (15-14, 9-5) with the third seed from the conference for next week’s Class 5A tournament at Searcy.
“We needed this to get that bad taste out of our mouth,’’ Parkview Coach Scotty Thurman said.
Despite struggling this season, eStem (9-26, 2-12) showed life early on. The Mets led 12-7 with 3:15 left in the first quarter and ended the frame leading 14-13.
Parkview started to show life in the second quarter but when the Mets hit a three-pointer with 3:50 left in the first half it was a 2222 game.
From there the Patriots took over, going on a 10-2 run to hold a 35-27 halftime lead.
Parkview started the third quarter with a 16-4 run and led at the end of the period 56-37.
“In spurts we played well,’’ Thurman said. “But we did not play as well as we are capable of. I think our group is probably realizing it is the time that you are really playing for something. So we needed this game to kind of get the other game that we just lost out of our system.
“Hopefully we can build on this and be ready for the state tournament next week.”
eStem got no closer than 20 in the final quarter and the Patriots emptied the bench.
Dallas Thomas, a 6-foot-8 Celmson signee, led the Patriots with 21 points, while Jayden Slaughter added 8, Drake Marbley 7 and Garrett Avery 6.
“I’m going to enjoy this one tonight and we will open the gym up on Sunday and try and get ready for Wednesday,’’ Thurman said.
Senior Jaxon Yancey led the Mets with 17 points and Justin May chipped in 12 more. Kingston Alexander added eight points.
The Patriots will open the tournament against the No. 2 seed from the East Conference.
GIRLS LR PARKVIEW 64, eSTEM 23
Little Rock Parkview raced to a 25-11 lead after one quarter and 41-17 halftime lead in the one-sided victory.
Breighah Bailey led Parkview with 12 points and Kritsen Johnson scored 11. Naomi Sharpley was also in double with figures with 10 and Kristyn Copper scored seven.
Simya Masgby led the Lady Mets with 10.