Beavers have memorable season on the hardwood
From dealing with COVID-19 to winning a game in the 3A State Tournament, the 2020-2021 Glen Rose Beavers basketball team had a memorable year on the court.
Although the Beavers didn’t play as many games as expected, due to the Beavers football team making the 3A State Playoff semifinals and being quarantined in January, head coach Devin Jones said it was a special year for the Beavers. “We didn’t get in nearly as many games, but you know our football team did really well, they made it all the way to the state semis,” he said. “I think we had our first practice December 18, so mid-December, then we practiced for two weeks, then we got quarantined coming right out of Christmas. So it took us a while to get rolling. That was difficult just getting them in the gym and getting them in the right shape, basketball shape, but once they got in, those kids were bought in from the get-go and it ended up being a fun year.”
The Beavers had five seniors, with four seniors being starters, and everyone else being juniors. But Coach Jones found that having an older team was advantageous, especially having to play with restrictions due to the pandemic. “For us it was okay because of how many seniors I had and how many juniors. They’ve all played for me for at least four years,” he said. “Everyone on that team played for me for at least four years, so they all knew me, knew what I wanted, knew my system, my style, so for us it helped us. It was simpler than it was for some teams who had new coaches, it didn’t affect us as much as others thankfully.”
Jones felt that the maturity and unselfish nature of the team helped the Beavers make a statement on the court and make a deep run in the postseason. “Extremely unselfish guys, we didn’t have any one kid average more than 10 points a game,” he said. “So it was 100 percent team effort. We won conference, won district, won two games at regionals, and then made the quarterfinals at state.”
This was the first season, in Coach Jones’ four seasons as the Beavers head coach, that the Beavers won a game in the state tournament and the first time they’d won two games in the regional tournament. After defeating Prescott for the title of 3A-7 District Champions, the Beavers went on to play in a tough regional. There they played an athletic Smackover team, lost a close game to McGehee, then rebounded to finish third against a good Drew Central team. “Our region was really tough,” Coach Jones said. “We had to go through an extremely athletic Smackover team. We lost a close one to McGehee, which they made it all the way to the state semis, then we had to go through a Drew Central team.”
The third place finish propelled the Beavers into the 3A State Tournament, their first appearance in three seasons. In the first round the Beavers upset a good Newport team 32-31 in the final second of the fourth quarter. “That game’s obviously down to the wire and we ended up winning it 32-31,” Coach Jones said. “It’s just one of those games where you really had to grit it out, have a lot of toughness.”
The Beavers then went on to play Lamar where they met their demise in a close battle, 48-43. “Wish we could have got that one back,” Coach Jones said. “We didn’t play well in that game and we should have won that one too but it is what is is. Lamar played really well. We were fired up, thought we had a good chance going into the game. Honestly we thought we could hold them under 40 [points], that was our goal going in, we were going to holm them under 40. We were on pace then that fourth quarter they just go hot, they hit shot after shot. We matched them shot for shot for a little bit but they just kept going, kept hitting them. I turned and looked at our bench and kinda smiled at them and told them ‘this is basketball fellas, this is good stuff right here.’ It didn’t turn out how we wanted but it was fun.”
Keeping Lamar under 40 points wasn’t just a one time idea. The Beavers goal all season was to hold teams under 40 points. “They knew from the beginning, we’re not going to outscore a lot of people,” Coach Jones said. “So we’re going to hold them under 40, keep the game in the thirties and just grind it out. They were all for it, they were fired up, they loved it. They loved the defensive end, so that’s kind of cool.”
Coach Jones added that keeping teams under 40 points won them a lot of games this season. It helped them win