Ladyhawks sports has big week
Coach Heather Wade’s track and field Blackhawks continued their dominance of the 4A classification as they won their third consecutive state championship in Fayetteville late Friday night. Then, less than 12 hours later, they were competing for a No. 3 seed in the state basketball tournament at Berryville, and won it by defeating Ozark 51-27 in North Regional competition.
With one state trophy in hand and looking for another, the Hawks are scheduled to play Mena Wednesday, March 4, in the first round of the state tournament at Farmington.
Mena’s Bearcats have a talented, deep and tall roster, with three athletes at 6’0” and two at 5’10”. Barely above .500 at 17-15, Mena has had many many one possession losses that could have given the Bearcats a much better record with a little luck. Their highlight reels show a lot of blocked shots in past games.
Ironically, the Hawks and Bearcats drew each other for the opening round of the state volleyball tournament last fall. Mena, having had a powerful volleyball program for some time, came out on top of that one.
Should the Hawks win Wednesday, they will play at 4 p.m. Thursday against the Batesville Pioneers, who had a bye into the quarterfinals by virtue of their 4A East Regional championship won last week. Batesville is 29-2 with one of their losses to cross town rival Batesville Southside, who beat them 60-51 on Feb. 11. The Pioneers have since beaten the Southerners 52-44 and 5342, the second time in the 4A East finals. Batesville and Batesville Southside ended their conference season tied with a 13-1 league mark.
The Hawks bested Batesville Southside 48-41 in the finals of the Heber Springs Tournament in December.
While only having one 6’0” player, the Pioneers are still blessed with height having one 5’11” player and four 5’10” athletes. A good offensive team, they have topped 70 points or more in nearly half their victories. For Pea Ridge to come out on top of Batesvile if they meet, it will be because of the Hawks’ speed and guard play. In the Hawks’ best games, they have done the job on the backboards and have been efficient in the backcourt.
If the Hawks could pull the upset, they would then likely be playing Farmington Saturday, March 7, for a ticket to the state final in Hot Springs next week. The Hawks have played the Cards four times this season without a win, but aside from missing some key personnel in last week’s one-sided loss, the three games prior were tightly fought, winnable games.
The Hawks’ leading scorer (Blakelee Winn) was absent last week against Farmington as she was leading the Blackhawk track team to a state title run on the same evening, with her 39 points being the biggest difference from winning the championship or finishing second. If the Hawks get one more shot at the Cards, the fourth time might be the charm.
The 4A state tournament pairings and the teams state rankings are:
Upper bracket
No. 1 Farmington (30-3) vs. bye
No. 30 Crossett (16-12) vs. No. 12 Pocahontas (18-10)
No. 2 Batesville (29-2) vs. bye
No. 7 Pea Ridge (24-9) vs. No. 25 Mena (17-15)
Lower bracket
No. 4 Star City (30-0) vs. bye
No. 5 Batesville Southside (24-6) vs. No. 15 Ozark (20-13)
No. 3 Harrison (27-4) vs. bye
No. 13 Nashville (18-9) vs.
No. 6 Little Rock Pulaski (26-3)
Three Top 10 teams did not make the state tournament. No. 8 Berryville was put out of the playoffs in district quarterfinals with injury plagued No. 9 Gravette knocked out by Ozark in region play. No. 10 DeQueen was eliminated by No. 30 Crossett in the region first round.
In the boys’ state brackets, earlier play scrambled the pairing as six of the Top 10 ranked schools did not make it through district/ region play. Only No. 1 Magnolia, No. 2 Little Rock Mills, No. 3 Blytheville and No. 8 Little Rock eStem are still alive. No. 4 Pulaski, No. 5 Westside, No. 6 Monticello, No. 7 Valley View , No. 9 Pea Ridge and No. 10 Brookland were all sidelined.
In high school sports, anything and everything is possible.
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Editor’s note: John McGee, an award-winning columnist, sports writer and art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, writes a regular sports column for The Times. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. He can be contacted through The Times at prtnews@nwadg.com.