Thievery pays off for Conway girls

CONWAY — North Little Rock stole a key road victory at Conway last season, but the Lady Wampus Cats returned the favor Friday night.

Conway came away with 19 steals and put together a pair of huge runs in the first and second halves to beat the Lady Charging Wildcats 68-47 at Buzz Bolding Arena.

The last time the two teams met, North Little Rock withstood a 42-point outing from Conway sophomore guard Chloe Clardy to pull out a 9489 victory in three overtimes Feb. 11. Things were much different in their first meeting of the 2020-21 season.

North Little Rock (8-4, 1-1 6A-Central) turned the ball over 27 times, with a majority of them leading to fast-break opportunities for its longtime rivals.

“Man, those led to so many easy baskets for them early,” North Little Rock Coach Daryl Fimple said of his team’s turnovers. “We just didn’t compete like we normally have. That’s been the story for us this year. It’s been up and down, up and down like a roller coaster.

“Some nights, we look like we can beat the Lakers. Other nights, we look like we don’t even want to play. But hats off to Conway because they made us pay all night.”

Clardy didn’t go off like she did in that February outing, but she still had 23 points, 7 steals and 4 rebounds for Conway ( 10-2, 2- 0), which has won eight games in a row. Junior guard Jaiden Thomas had 19 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals while sophomore center Savannah Scott finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds and 2 steals.

Junior forward Destine Duckworth ended with 13 points, 8 rebounds and 3 steals for North Little Rock, which shot 17 of 42 (40.4%) from the floor. Senior guard Arin Freeman had 12 points.

But it was Conway’s defensive pressure that made the difference.

“We were without six players, five of whom are in quarantine, so we sort of had to change our defensive plan,” Conway Coach Ashley Hutchcraft said. “We like to get after you, especially on the top of our 1-3-1. We just wanted to make North Little Rock play as many possessions as they could.

“Chloe and Jaiden with their length on the wings, [Kalayn King] is about 5-9 and [Savannah Scott] is 6-4 in the middle. That can make it tough on a guard if it’s set up right.”

Conway, which shot 56.5% (26 of 46) for the game, turned the ball over on its first three possessions, two of which led to three-pointers from Duckworth and senior guard Kalina Foster that gave North Little Rock a 6-0 lead. But the Lady Wampus Cats shook off that shaky start with eight quick points that came directly off steals.

An 11-2 run allowed Conway to take a 17-14 cushion into the second quarter. The Lady Wampus Cats still led 2015 before back-to-back steals and conversions from Clardy ignited a 12-2 surge that gave Conway a 17-point lead.

“I lot of it was just that we didn’t match Conway’s effort,” said Fimple, whose team committed 10 turnovers in the period and 17 in the first half. “We kept getting punched in the mouth and didn’t punch back.”