Brown scores 30 as Bentonville defeats Cabot

BENTONVILLE — Jada Brown’s experience is something a young Bentonville girls team will depend upon heavily as the Lady Tigers grow through the early stages of the season.

The senior guard and Vanderbilt signee led the way Saturday afternoon with 30 points, and Bentonville enjoyed its only true home game before the holidays with a 7259 victory over Cabot.

“It was a good win for us and nice to be able to grow up,” said Bentonville coach Tom Halbmaier, whose team won’t play in Tiger Arena again until Jan. 11 against Rogers Heritage. “We have a lot of kids playing that didn’t get a lot of varsity experience, but Jada does a great job of masking a lot of that.

“Those girls are growing, and they’re competing and playing well. They’re very unselfish, and they don’t care who shoots the ball. We just have to continue to have that mindset and that chemistry.”

Cabot (0-1) hung tough with Bentonville (2-0) throughout the first half, and that resulted in 13 lead changes and 9 tie scores. The Lady Tigers had the biggest lead, 11-7, on a 3-pointer by Olivia Rustad — one of four juniors in the starting lineup — and Sam Rhuda’s two free throws with 0.7 seconds left before halftime gave Bentonville a 33-31 cushion.

The Lady Tigers were able to put together an offensive run in the third quarter and pull away. Ella Campbell hit a pair of 3-pointers and had eight points during a 15-5 run, with her second shot from beyond the arc giving Bentonville a 5138 cushion with 2:34 left in the third quarter.

“I think our shot selection was much better, and we hit some shots,” Halbmaier said. “And our defense, it clamped down. Cabot missed some shots, and we made sure they didn’t get second- chance points out of that. Our transition, getting up and down the floor, just wore them down and created higher percentage shots for us.”

Bentonville’s lead never dropped into single digits as the Lady Tigers took a 56-43 lead into the fourth quarter and enjoyed their biggest cushion when Brown hit a 3-pointer — her fifth of the game — and made it 67-47 with 5:51 remaining.

Campbell finished with 12 points and Rhuda added 10 for Bentonville, which returns to action Dec. 3 at Gravette.

Laylah Reese led Cabot with 20 points, followed by Carly Madar with 12.

BOYS

BENTONVILLE 61, MARION 59

Hayden Shanks hit two free throws with 7.3 seconds left as Bentonville came away with a victory over Marion during the Hoopin’ 4 Hoodies Showcase on Saturday at Maumelle’s Hornet Gymnasium.

Owen Dehrmann scored a game-high 24 points, including a key steal and conversion with 17 seconds remaining, to power Bentonville (1-0), which was forced to play without all-star junior Jaylen Lee. However, the Tigers’ stand-ins moved to the forefront when they needed them to against one of the state’s best.