CHAMPIONSHIP FORM
It took the entire 32 minutes of game time to determine the Class 7A championship Saturday at Bank of the Ozarks Arena Saturday as Fort Smith Northside battled North Little Rock for the third time this season.
Northside’s Tevin Brewer missed the front end of a two-shot attempt but made the second with 12.8 seconds left. Following a Northside timeout, Tre Norwood stole the ball, but a traveling call gave the ball back to the Wildcats with 6.7 seconds remaining. With Shawn Fudge looking to spin and shift direction to drive the lane, Brewer rushed in, knocking the ball free with four seconds to go. It bounced toward the sideline where Brewer kicked it to teammate Isaiah Joe, who dribbled the clock for a 50-49 win and the school’s first state title since 2007.
“North Little Rock beat us twice, both really good games,” Northside coach Eric Burnett said. “They just made more plays than us down the stretch those two games. I feel like my guys made the plays today, especially on the defensive end when there was under a minute left. We got in our zone, and the guy spins, and Tevin saw an opportunity to go get that basketball and use his quickness and basketball IQ. He came up with it and made the play for us to win the game.”
With the game dependent on the Grizzlies’ two primary shooters to play defense, Brewer and Joe relied on their knowledge of each other and the game to help secure the win.
“I saw Isaiah when he cut him off,” Brewer said. “I saw him throw the ball behind his back, and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to jump for the steal. When the ball was going out of bounds, I knew I had to hustle for it and dive on the floor and throw it back in.”
“It was just a relief, knowing that when the ball came in my hands that we had won it,” Joe said. “It was just an amazing feeling. It was just great to win with my boys.”
Joe, an Arkansas verbal commit, led all scorers with 20 points, five rebounds and three steals, while Brewer added 18 with six boards, three assists and a steal.
North Little Rock’s Collin Moore put up 19 for the Wildcats with seven rebounds, two blocked shots and three steals. Deion Dobbins added eight with seven rebounds.
The Wildcats (25-4) took control early, jumping ahead 5-0 in the first 25 seconds, but the Grizzlies bounced back with a 7-0 run in the ensuing 1:35. Seven lead changes ensued before Northside ended the quarter up 20-18. The Grizzlies led 30-28 at halftime, both teams struggling to score in the second quarter.
Northside (23-7) had a steal and a bucket to go up 32-28 early in the third quarter, but the Wildcats tied it with 5:25 left in the period. Joe, who scored all 11 of the Grizzlies’ third quarter points, put Northside up by seven before the Wildcats narrowed the margin to two at the buzzer.
“You know, he’s done that all year long,” said Burnett. “It allows Tevin to relax a little bit when Isaiah does that, that way Tevin can kinda get over to the side and catch a second wind. When he gets to get going like that, I’ve told them that we need to feed him because he can rack up points in a hurry.”
The two teams battled it out in the final eight minutes with three ties and two lead changes before the Grizzlies ended up on top.
Despite the outcome, North Little Rock coach Johnny Rice had nothing but praise for his players.
“No one in the state of Arkansas was saying that we’d be where we are at right now,” he said. “For these seniors to accomplish what they did and get us in a position where one play, 20 seconds, determined the winner and loser. No one mentioned North Little Rock in this. I told them, ‘one game, one minute, don’t define a season or define you as a player.’ I’ve won three state championships, but I’m not more proud of this team.”
Both teams struggled with shooting, ending 34 percent from the field and 33 percent from behind the arc.
“In this atmosphere, in the type of game it is, in a big arena with the stakes as high as they are, you’re not going to shoot it as well,” Rice said. “We hit some shots, and they hit some big ones. I figured the score wasn’t going to be 80s or 90s.”