Williams’ shots lift Fayetteville in OT
■ Friday’s game against Rogers was canceled because of covid-19.
Fayetteville junior C.J. Williams knocked down big shot after big shot Tuesday night to lead the Bulldogs to a 80-76 victory over Siloam Springs at Panther Activity Center.
Williams canned six threepointers, including a trey to give Fayetteville the lead for good in overtime, and finished with 24 points.
Williams missed the front end of two 1-and-1s in the final minute and Siloam Springs capitalized to tie the game at 68 at the end of regulation.
But he bounced back in the extra period.
“He missed both ends of the front of the 1-and-1 or we win in regulation,” said Bulldogs coach Brad Stamps. “But toughness, you come back and make a shot in overtime and we battled. We can’t fault the kids’ efforts. We weren’t as smart as we should have been or could have been. But you move on to the next one and get ready for the next one.”
Matt Wayman scored inside to give Fayetteville a 70-68 lead to open the extra period, but Josh Stewart hit a pair of free throws to tie it back up.
Williams — the son of former NBA and Oklahoma State player Corey Williams, who is now an assistant men’s basketball coach at the University of Arkansas — knocked down a three-pointer on the wing for a 73-70 lead and the Bulldogs wouldn’t trail again.
Landon Ward answered with a jumper, but Kaiden Turner scored on a putback for Fayetteville as the Bulldogs went back up 75-72.
Fayetteville drew an offensive foul on the other end and Williams hit a long jump shot for a 77-72 lead. Sawyer Keith hit two free throws for a 79-72 lead with 35.3 seconds left to seal the win.
Keith added 22 points for the Bulldogs (6-2), while Landon Glasper added 13. The Bulldogs knew they were in for a battle on the road, Stamps said.
“I give credit completely to Tim Stewart, Siloam and their kids. We talked about that coming here,” Stamps said. “It’s one of those things where we knew we were going to get their best shot. We know the resilience of their kids. We’ve watched them on film, and I’ve got a lot of respect for Tim over the years. His teams always play hard, and they’re tough to (prepare) for when you don’t have a lot of scout time, because they’re different. You don’t see the 3-2 zone much. Some of their shuffle offense. Some things we don’t see. So you play teams like that, if you’re not scouted up or paying attention to detail, things like that can happen. But I’m proud of my kids for finding a way to win.”
Ward led Siloam Springs (3-5) with 24 points, while Josh Stewart had 23, including two free throws with 17.7 seconds left in regulation to send the game into
overtime. Jackson Ford added 13 points for the Panthers.
Fayetteville led 10-0 early in the first quarter but Siloam Springs roared back with a 13-2 run to take a 1312 lead on a deep 3-pointer from Ward.
Fayetteville answered back with a 8-2 run to end the first quarter and lead 20-14 after Williams hit his second three of the game.
The Bulldogs pulled ahead by as many as 13 points in the second quarter before Siloam Springs cut the lead to 37-31 at halftime.
The Panthers opened the third quarter on a 9-0 run to go up 40-37. Max Perkins and Stewart each scored inside and Perkins tied the game with a baseline jumper.
Stewart hit a 3-pointer in the corner to give Siloam Springs the lead again.
Fayetteville came back to take a 58-53 lead at the end of the third with Williams hitting another big 3-pointer.
“Fayetteville showed us great pressure at times and then really solid half court man-to-man defense that we’re going to see in our conference all year long,” said Siloam Springs coach Tim Stewart. “We just appreciate our kids competing. We’ve had a couple of games where we didn’t compete to the level we think we should. Tonight we kind of got back to the basics and we were just going to fight and compete. We were pleased to see that. We needed to make some more plays in overtime. We had some silly turnovers. But man, kids laid it out there tonight and we’re pleased with their effort.”
Rogers-Siloam Springs
The game between Rogers and Siloam Springs that was scheduled for Friday was canceled because of covid-19 protocol, athletics director Ken Harriman said Friday afternoon.
Harriman said Rogers contacted Siloam Springs early Friday afternoon to inform the Panthers they would have to cancel because of covid quarantine. It was supposed to be the boys’ basketball team’s senior night. No makeup game has been set.
Up next
The Panthers return to action on Dec. 29 at Gravette before hosting Bentonville West on Dec. 30 and Gentry on Dec. 31.