Baptist Prep repels PR’s 3-point barrage
Pea Ridge flashed its lethal three-point shooting, but it wasn’t enough to match the duo of Baptist Prep’s Issac McBride and Connor Vanover.
Baptist Prep, shooting 62 percent from the field, rode a 12-0 run in the fourth quarter to a 59-51 win in the Class 4A championship game Friday night at Bank of the Ozarks Arena, clinching its second-straight title and fifth overall.
“Hats off to Pea Ridge; that was an amazing performance by them and their kids played their hearts out,” Baptist Prep coach Brian Ross said. “They deserved to be here and honestly they probably deserved to win the game, but these guys right here (McBride and Vanover) and all the other guys in that locker room just kept making big play after big play in the fourth quarter.”
Kobe Rose connected on Pea Ridge’s eighth trey of the second half to give the Blackhawks a 47-45 lead with
5:26 to play before the Eagles took control for good. Dylan Hogan and McBride each scored five points as part of a 12-0 run to give Baptist Prep a 57-47 advantage in the final minute.
“This definitely wasn’t the outcome we wanted, but very, very proud of this group and how hard they fought,” Pea Ridge coach Trent Loyd said. “That’s a very talented Baptist Prep team and there’s no doubt that they’ve got multiple D-1 players on that team. We knew what we were going up against, but very proud of the way these guys stuck together.”
The Eagles opened on a 9-2 run behind scoring contributions from four different players, but the Blackhawks didn’t stay down for long. Pea Ridge’s Joey Hall beat the buzzer from half court to trim the gap to 14-10 and continued his hot streak into the second quarter.
The senior buried three more shots from behind the arc, scoring the team’s first 11 points of the period for a
21-19 Pea Ridge lead. Baptist Prep closed the quarter on an 8-2 run behind six points from Vanover for a 27-23 halftime advantage.
“They put pressure on us all night, and we fought it off,” said Loyd. “We had a couple little turnovers here and there, but that’s going to happen in a game. You can nitpick and point at this play or that play, but that’s just kind of the way the game goes. It was a good showing by our guys and I’m proud of them.”
Vanover dominated the third period, scoring 10 of Baptist Prep’s 13 points, but Pea Ridge hung around on the strength of its three-point shooting. The Blackhawks scored all 15 of their points from behind the arc, converting on five of nine attempts including a buzzer-beater by Hayden Holtgrewe to pull within 41-38.
Three more treys gave Pea Ridge its 47-45 lead in the fourth, but McBride would not be denied. The sophomore scored nine of his team-high 20 points in the fourth quarter as the Eagles regained momentum.
“He competes every single day and every single drill like it’s the state finals, and that’s why he’s ready when he gets here,” Ross said. “He has ever since the day I met him when he was an eighth-grader. You do a rebounding drill and he’s going all out to win it; you do a shooting drill on June 10 this summer, and he’s going in there to win it.”
The Blackhawks had only one field goal from inside the three-point line in the second half and didn’t attempt a foul shot until the final 30 seconds when the game was out of reach.
“We wanted to attack to kick it out,” said Loyd. “I think right off the bat, we weren’t sure to attack or not. I thought in the second quarter and third quarter we did a good job of attacking, and we kicked to three-point shooters; those were the shots we knew we had to take. When you’re not throwing it on the block and you’re not getting contact there, then it’s tough to get to the line some.”
Vanover tied McBride for the team lead with 20 points and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds. Hogan finished with 11 points, including three three-pointers.
Hall paced the Blackhawks with 16 points and Rose finished with 11. Pea Ridge converted on 13 of its 23 attempts from behind the arc.
Although returning the core of McBride and Vanover next season, Ross wasn’t prepared to talk about a potential three-peat next season..
“Honestly I don’t even want to think about it; we’re going to enjoy this,” he said. “We do have a lot of returning starters, but there’s no guarantees that everything goes right and you get back to this point. We’re going to soak it in for a little while and then we’ll get to working on next year before too long.”