Wildcats fall short in 6A title game
HOT SPRINGS – Twoand-a-half minutes of playing time separated Jonesboro from El Dorado on Friday. The Hurricane used a 14-0 run in the third quarter to break open a tie game and blew out to a 74-57 victory in the 6A state championship game, played at the Bank of the Ozarks Arena.
Jonesboro finished off an undefeated season at 32-0. The Wildcats, champions of the 6A-West, ended their season with a 28-5 record.
The game was knotted at 36-36 midway in the third quarter when Czar Perry went to the bench because of blood on his uniform. This came after Daniel Gafford had a brief stay on the bench for the exact same issue.
By the time Perry got back into the game, the 36-36 tie had turned into a 41-36 Hurricane lead, which eventually swelled to 50-36 after Jonesboro’s press produced three straight turnovers. Desi Sills drained a 3-pointer with 2:08 left in the third to push the advantage to 14.
“I guess you don’t plan for your two best players to get blood on their jerseys at a big time,” said El Dorado coach Gary Simmons. “Coach Swift, being the good coach that
he is, while we had them over there trying to get them cleaned up, puts the press on a couple of trips. We turned it over and all the momentum went back over to them.”
Jonesboro coach Wes Swift wouldn’t take all the credit but said it was a factor.
“Anytime Czar is out of the game, our guys know we can feast just a little bit harder when the ball is not in his hands,” said Swift. “I didn’t think the other guards were near as confident. But, no we didn’t say, Czar is out, right now we’re going to do this.”
Once Jonesboro grabbed the lead, it never let up. The margin was 52-38 going into the fourth quarter.
Tony Hutson’s eight fourth-quarter points helped the Hurricane push the cushion to 66-44 midway in the final period.
Perry led El Dorado with 18 points. Gafford scored 16 with 17 rebounds and three blocked shots. Ryu Unice scored eight while Brendan Johnson and Bishop Foster contributed seven and five, respectively.
Hutson led Jonesboro with 15 points. Ben Harvey and Sills each scored 12 and Marquis Eaton tallied eight.
Perry got El Dorado off to a quick start with nine points in the opening quarter. He hit a 3-pointer to give the Wildcats a 14-8 lead but then picked up his third foul with 36.8 left in the first.
El Dorado settled for a 16-12 lead after one.
“I thought early the pace of the game was right where we wanted it. But, it’s hard to play that pace when Daniel and Czar are over there with me,” said Simmons.
Jonesboro scored the first 10 points of the second with Hutson and Harvey knocking down backto-back 3-pointers. Hutson’s dunk gave the Hurricane a 22-16 advantage with 5:02 left in the second.
But, the Wildcats answered with a 10-5 spurt. Perry fed Gafford for a dunk and then scored himself on a drive. Gafford’s post move cut the deficit to 27-26 late in the half. Gafford and Perry finished the half with back-to-back buckets for a 30-29 halftime lead.
“I thought we came out and did a decent job of attacking in the first quarter or quarter-and-a-half,” said Swift.
“We were sitting there with Czar Perry with three fouls and Daniel with two fouls. I’m wanting us to be in attack mode and we started shooting jump shots the last four minutes. I don’t know if we ever shot a shot in the paint the last four (minutes).
“They got some run outs. Czar got going a little bit in transition. Gafford had a couple of put backs, which we didn’t want. Low and behold, we go in down one when we feel like for a quarter-and-ahalf, we played well.
“I thought we attacked the paint a lot more in the second half.”
Jonesboro used four different athletic defenders to tag team on Gafford in the paint.
“That’s kind of hit us all year long. I’ve got a great group of kids and Daniel is a great player. But, right now, he doesn’t have a buddy who can come off the bench and share some of that load,” said Simmons.
“When you just keep coming in and putting fresh bodies on people. I told Coach at halftime, we’re going to have to keep him out in the third because they had physically just beat him to death. Nothing illegal.
“Nothing like that but they just kept bodies on him. He was carrying two people around with him. Daniel doesn’t back down. He just keeps coming. Yeah, it wore him down toward the end.”