Lady Wildcats wrap up strong weekend

SPRINGDALE HAR-BER 54, BROOKLAND 17

LITTLE ROCK — Mission accomplished for Springdale Har-Ber after two strong performances on back-to-back days at the Rachel Rutherford Turkey Crossover Classic.

The Lady Wildcats opened their two-day, post-Thanksgiving trip Friday with a solid 12-point win against Cabot. Then Saturday, it was even more of the same as Har-Ber (3-0) dominated an overmatched Class 4A Brookland, 54-17, at Alex Hugg Gym on the Pulaski Academy campus.

“I’m probably going to say this a lot this year, but we’re a young team and we’ve got a lot of things to work on and to get better at,” Springdale Har-Ber coach Sandy Wright said. “But I thought we did get better over these last two games.”

Brookland was undersized against a Har-Ber frontcourt featuring plenty of strength with Karrington Whaley, Rachel Odina and Jacie Higgins all going over 5-foot-11. On Saturday, it was Higgins leading the charge both offensively and defensively, scoring 17 points while providing several stops on the Brookland end of the floor, which led to easy points.

“Higgins has really bought into playing better defense,” Wright said. “She’s 5-10 and that makes it hard on the other teams. And we really haven’t had a stopper since Halee Castleman, and I think Higgins is going to fill that role for us this year.”

Har-Ber led 15-5 after one quarter, getting six early points from Kanni Shannon. The lead grew to 28-8 at halftime as Brookland was held to four field goals by intermission.

In the second half, Brookland would only add three more field goals as the Lady Wildcats raced away with the sportsmanship rule victory.

“I think that (defense) has been one of our weaknesses the last couple of years,” Wright said. “That’s one of the things that has definitely picked up is our defense. But one thing I know is defense wins games, and defense converts to offense.

Shannon added 11 for HarBer in the win Saturday and Whaley also contributed with eight points.

The Lady Wildcats are back on the court Thursday when they begin play at the Greene County Tech Tournament against Marion.

Little Rock Central 58,

Fayetteville 49 (OT)

Fayetteville rallied from an eight-point deficit in the second half to take its first lead of the game with just two minutes, five seconds left to play but fell short in overtime in a rematch of last year’s Class 7A state semifinals.

The Lady Bulldogs struggled to match Central’s size inside the paint but rallied with a big spurt in the fourth quarter. A couple of missed opportunities to win the game in regulation, on a DaShundra Morgan driving layup attempt and a Pink Jones short jumper, led to an OT period where Central took back over.

“We did everything we wanted to do,” Fayetteville coach Vic Rimmer said. “They did a great job of blocking and contesting shots and they’ve got a great team. But I’m proud of my team for the heart they showed. That’s all we talked about in the locker room is the heart, and I’m proud of the way we played to fight back like we did.”

Ashley Breathitt led Fayetteville with 10 points.