Red Devils punch ticket to state with regional win
POYEN — Mountain Pine’s immense depth was on full display Wednesday night.
While the starting unit struggled to find a rhythm, the Red Devils (26-3) got 49 points from their bench in a 68-54 win over Rison (6-15) in the first round of the 2A-South regional tournament at Poyen’s Jerry and Ouida Newton Arena.
Notching its 14th consecutive win, Mountain Pine secured a berth in the Class 2A state tournament next week at White County Central.
“This is how I want my teams to be,” Mountain Pine coach LaMont Page said. “I can look down there and pull anybody off that bench, and they will be ready to play. Tonight was indicative of that. I took a whole different unit and put them in there, and we took off.
“That comes from having that team camaraderie. I told them from the beginning, it is going to take a complete team effort to win a state championship. Sometimes, the second unit plays better than the first, and that is what team basketball is all about.”
Aided by three early Mountain Pine turnovers, the Wildcats got off to a blistering start. Landric Lea scored six points and Fred Marsh had four points as Rison opened the game on a
12-2 run.
“I just think it was matchups,” said Page. “Basketball is a game of matchups, and our first unit did not match up well with them.”
Following a timeout and mass substitution midway through the opening quarter, Mountain Pine senior forward Matt Snow buried a 3-pointer to spark a 10-0 run that tied the score at 12-12 in the final minute.
Rison’s Roshawn Martin later beat the buzzer with a deep
3-pointer to give the Wildcats a 15-12 lead at the end of the period.
Snow knotted the score at 15-15 with a trey to open the second quarter, setting the stage for another dynamic shooting performance. Four days after hitting six shots from behind the arc in a 69-53 win over Blevins, Snow buried three 3-pointers
“It was a tough one,” said Ouachita head coach Dennis Nutt. “They played a heck of a first half and cooled off a little bit there in the middle of the second half, until the end and they started making shots again. We were fortunate to get out of here. Any time you win on the road in this league, it is a good win.
“It is always tough when you are playing Henderson, across the street rival. It doesn’t matter, here or over there, it is always the same. I was proud of our guys. I thought the second half, that second unit we brought in, I thought they really sparked us. We started getting some stops and scoring for us. It was good, and I’m proud of them.”
Ouachita is currently tied in sixth place with Arkansas Tech
(16-10, 10-10) , which comes to Bill Vining Arena tonight. With the top eight advancing to play in next week’s GAC Tournament in Bartlesville, Okla., Southern Arkansas (13-13, 9-11) and Henderson are still in contention for one of the final spots.
“There’s still a bunch of scenarios that can play out,” Nutt said. “All we want to do is control ourselves, keep in mind what we’re doing. If we get that defensive effort like we have seen the last three games, we will have a chance.”
The Reddies currently sit in eighth place behind the Muleriders and just two games ahead of Oklahoma Baptist (9-17, 6-14).
“We’ve got to win to get in,” Elgas said. “What Henderson State basketball is is a blue-collar, hard-working, fighting, competitive basketball program. No matter if we get eliminated from the tournament or we get the last seed or the first seed, it doesn’t matter.
“When you go between those lines, you’ve got to compete. Whether in practice or film, we try to maximize our effort in whatever we do. We will never sit back or lay back or anything like that. We are going to keep grinding. We’ve got good players we’ve got good seniors who deserve my best effort and our players’ best effort to try to go in and win these next two ball games.”
Ouachita got on the board first, taking a 3-0 lead on a trey by junior Mahlon Martin, of Episcopal Collegiate in Little Rock, just 24 seconds into the game, but the Reddies knotted the score a minute later before the Tigers hit a 9-0 run to pull away 12-3 at the 16:52 mark.
Henderson pulled within 1210 with 12:51 remaining, but the Tigers refused to give up the lead, maintaining at least a single-point buffer until freshman Chris Parker knotted the score at
18-18 with 8:42 remaining in the half on one of two free throws. Ouachita again pulled ahead, stretching the advantage to three twice before a pair of treys by Parker put Henderson back in control of the scoreboard, 29-26, at the 4:59 mark.
The Tigers knotted the score
30 seconds later on a 3-pointer by Martin, but Henderson pulled ahead again, stretching the lead out to seven points twice before the break.
The Reddies shot for 57.7 percent from the field in the first half, 15 of 26, while hitting 6 of
11, 54.5 percent, from distance. Ouachita shot for 46.7 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, 14 of 30, but hit just 3 of 12 from distance for 25 percent.
“I told them real simply that if they shot 58 percent in the second half, we would not win,” Nutt said. “That was kind of what we talked about. We held them to 39, I think, in the second half, and if you do that, it will give you a chance to win. That’s what we did.”
The Tigers finished shooting 49.2 percent, 30 of 61, after shooting 16 of 31 from the field,
51.6 percent, in the second half. Henderson cooled significantly in the second half, sinking 14 of
36, 38.9 percent, from the field and 5 of 14, 35.7 percent, from distance to finish with 46.8 percent from the field.
Martin paced the Tigers with
24 points and five rebounds. “Mahlon played well,” Nutt said. “He is one of those guys that has been around. He is a veteran, and he has been through the wars of this league and kind of knows what to expect. He played well, made his free throws down the stretch, which we needed because they wouldn’t go away.”
Freshman Kendarious Smith added 15 with five boards and a pair of assists, and sophomore Isaiah Harper, of Little Rock McClellan, added 11 with seven rebounds. Junior Wesley Franklin led Ouachita with three assists, Harris pulling down seven rebounds.
Parker led all scorers with 26 points with four rebounds. Jones added 14 points with five boards and three steals, sophomore D.J. Franklin, of Monticello, had 13 with seven rebounds and senior Matt Pannagio put up 12 with a team-leading five assists.
“Chris has done a good job of scoring the basketball for us and getting us into our offense. He’s got a knack of getting into the paint and creating his own shot. He’s good at that. D.J. is an energy guy, when he plays with energy, offensive rebounds, tips and changing ends of the floor, he’s a good player. That is his strength. That is what he has to continue to do as we move forward.”
The Reddies travel to Magnolia on today to face the Muleriders (13-13, 9-11) of Southern Arkansas before closing out the regular season with Harding (520, 5-15) in Searcy on Saturday. The Tigers will host Arkansas Tech (16-10, 10-10) today before their regular-season finale against Southern Arkansas at Bill Vining Arena Saturday.
The Tigers will host a “Purple Rain” night for tonight’s Arkansas Tech game. Students are encouraged to wear purple and pack out the arena as the Tigers go for a sweep against the Wonder Boys.
During the media timeouts, the OBU softball team will toss purple balls with money attached into the crowd, and free t-shirts will also be throwns at the game. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. with the women’s game set for 5:30 p.m.