Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Lions roar past War Eagles for victory
GRAVETTE — The contest came down to the wire on Dec. 21 as the Gravette Lions hosted the Rogers Heritage War Eagles in a non-conference game at Lion Arena in Gravette. In fact, the contest was decided in the last 30 seconds on a play that left the War Eagles scratching their heads.
The opening tip went to the Lions, who took it down and passed the ball several times looking for an open threepoint shot. Finally, Dakota Sizemore, standing in the leftwing, nailed the three- point field goal, giving Gravette its first points of the night. On its first possession of the night, Lucas Sarratt hit a three-point field goal for the War Eagles to tie the game at three-all.
At the five minute mark of the first quarter, the tie was finally broken on a two-point layup by Gabe Edgmon, giving the Lions back the lead. From there it was the Johnny Dunfee-Tristan Batie show as both players, Dunfee with seven and Batie with six, helped to build a 18-12 lead over Heritage to end the first quarter.
The Lions managed to hold the War Eagles scoreless for the first three minutes of the second quarter. But a threepoint field goal by Taylor Dumond broke the slump for Heritage. With two minutes left in the half, Heritage managed to pull within five points of the Lions. But that was as close as the War Eagles came when time expired in the first half. The Lions took a 30-21 lead into the locker room at halftime.
The Lions powered their way through the first three minutes of the third quarter, extending the lead to 15. Try as they did, the War Eagles were never able to break through the strong Gravette offensive and defensive game plan and the third quarter ended with the Lions ahead, 48-33.
Gravette found itself in a scoring slump during the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, which the War Eagles used to full advantage. With 37 seconds left to play, Heritage had powered its way back and was trailing Gravette by a field goal. A pair of free throws by Batie extended the Lions’ lead back to four. A defensive blunder by Heritage, coupled with one of the most impressive feats of ball handing took place between Dunfee and Sizemore.
Dunfee was driving toward the basket when he found himself surrounded by several War Eagle defenders. This left Sizemore at the top of the key with only one defender who was out of position. Dunfee realized he had no chance to connect with the basket and reached around the trailing defender and passed the ball to Sizemore, who took it in for a two-point layup. In the process, the War Eagle defender fouled Sizemore after the shot, sending him to the free-throw line for the game-sealing shot. Sizemore hit the shot which put the game out of reach for Heritage and the Gravette Lions took the win, 59-52, over the Rogers Heritage War Eagles.
Three Lion players were in double figures for the contest. Leading the way were Johnny Dunfee with 21 and Tristan Batie with 20. Dakota Sizemore had 11. Rounding out the scoring effort were Michael Duke with five and Edgmon with two.
Two War Eagles were in double figures for the night, including Michah Hill with 21 and Kyle Ingram with 12.
In an earlier contest, the Gravette junior varsity took on the Heritage junior varsity in a 24- minute contest. The War Eagles JV team took the win, 61-33, over the Gravette Lions JV.