West Memphis downs El Dorado
El Dorado opened its home basketball schedule Saturday with a girls-boys doubleheader against West Memphis at Wildcat Arena. The Blue Devils rallied to win the varsity boys game 70-62 after the Lady Wildcats fell short 62-44 in the varsity girls.
Aryah Hazley pumped in 30 points to lead the West Memphis girls, who led 29-17 at the half and 44-27 going into the fourth.
Jessica Morton and Grace Murry led the Lady Wildcats, scoring 11 and 10, respectively. Tasia Richardson and Diamond Hawthorne scored eight points apiece.
El Dorado’s boys squared off against last year’s 6A state runner-up and led 19-10 after one quarter and 32-20 with a minute left in the half. But, the Blue Devils outscored the Wildcats 29-11 in the third quarter.
Highly-recruited Chris Moore was held scoreless in the first half but scored nine of his 13 points in the third.
“I was excited about the fact that our kids came out against the defending 6A runner-up, who some people say could contend for the title again this year, and didn’t back down. They played with a lot of guts and played with a lot of enthusiasm,” said El Dorado coach Gary Simmons. “I thought they played harder than West Memphis did for a lot of the night. I thought we did a great job on Chris. He’s a top 20 in the nation guy. I thought we had a real good game plan going in and I thought we did a good job on him. The other kids on the team started hitting shots, which got him more open in the second half. But, for the most part I was pleased with the way we shared the ball. I thought it was a great start.”
The Wildcats did not trail in the first half Brenden Johnson, Joderrio Ramey and Brendan Simmons combined for 25 points. A Johnson-toRamey alley-oop dunk highlighted a 17-6 run to start the game. A 12-0 run gave the Wildcats a 12-point cushion late in the half.
:”The way we’re capable of shooting it and spreading the floor, it really didn’t surprise me that we could score on them,” Simmons
said. “What was most exciting to me was the defense we played. It was what was lacking last year. We didn’t play defense real well last year at times. I just thought our timing coming off screens after we started mingling the lineup a little bit, I just thought our timing was off. It was harder to get Brendan coming off screens. It was harder to get B.J. set on ball screens coming off and shooting. The ball screen for Joe ended up being at the top of the key a lot instead of at half court like it’s supposed to be. It was just a couple of things that we have to get on the same page by Tuesday night. I was impressed with our group as a whole, even kids that didn’t get in the game and the way they were up and fired up for their teammates.”
An injury to Ramey, who fell hard on a drive to the basket after getting fouled by Moore, hampered the Wildcats in the second half.
“It did pull us down a little bit. Joe gets Brendan and B.J. going on offense. You could tell he was tentative and lost some of his quickness after he got hurt,” said Simmons, who said he liked the fact that Ramey challenged one of the best players in the state.
“I thought it was important for Joe, at that time, to make a statement for his team and for himself that, we’re here and I’m here. I’m not in this for myself. I need to go score. I need to get my team fired up and I think that’s why he went to the hole. I think he wanted to prove to everybody that I can play with this kid. That’s why B.J. went in and challenged him a couple of times. That’s why Brendan drove in and tried to get a shot on him. They were trying to show people that we didn’t do the things we needed to all the time last year but we’re doing them now. I think they’ve grown up a lot, I really do..”
Johnson led El Dorado with 23 points with Ramey scoring 15. Brendan Simmons and Alex Boone each tallied nine.
Corliss Brown led West Memphis with 16 points.
El Dorado met Sunday for a practice. The Wildcats have a busy week ahead with Pine Bluff on Tuesday and Magnolia on Friday.
“We’ve got another tough one Tuesday night. This time last year we went down after we played West Memphis and Pine Bluff blew us out there. That was probably our most embarrassing loss of the year. They just annihilated us,“said Simmons. “These kids aren’t thinking about that except they’re not going to let it happen. You turn around and you’ve got Magnolia, who will have their football kids a little longer than us. Magnolia has a good ninth grade bunch they’ve moved up. One of them is supposed to be one of the top in the nation in his class. The schedule doesn’t get any easier plus it’s a rivalry game. We come back next week and lock horns with Camden.”
But, despite Saturday’s loss, Simmons believes the Wildcats are off to a solid start to the season.
“I want to say something about the fans. To me that’s the first time the arena has sounded like when Daniel and Czar was here. I really, really appreciate that. The fans were in it and they were supportive to the kids. I can’t say enough about our fans,” he said.
“I’m really encouraged, really proud of the way the kids played. I’m proud of those ninth grade boys for getting that W in the finals of that ninth grade tournament. We’ll just roll from here.”