SPORTS: Garland County teams ready for tourney,
Today is Garland County Day in the Class 5A state basketball tournament at Trojan Arena.
The four remaining 5A-South teams from the county will be taking the court today in four straight games.
Lakeside bookends the day’s games with the Lady Rams taking the court at 10 a.m. against Russellville while the Rams take on Mountain Home at 7 p.m. in the nightcap. The Lake Hamilton Wolves face off against Vilonia this afternoon at 1 p.m. for a chance to face Little Rock Parkview in the second round on Friday, and the Hot Springs Lady Trojans will face the Greenwood Lady Bulldogs at 4 p.m.
The Trojans fell, 71-54, to Russellville
Tuesday afternoon in the first boys game of the day, but the Lady Wolves defeated Greenbrier Tuesday evening, 72-66, to advance to Saturday’s second-round game.
Lakeside girls head coach Chris Brock said he feels good about his team’s preparedness.
“I feel like we’ve played well for an extended period of time,” he said. “I felt like we were pretty consistent in what we do, things we do well, the things we’ve got at to kind of stay away from each coming game. into I this feel about like we’re as healthy as we could be considering what happened to us, you know, earlier in the year. Just pretty confident in how we’re playing and hoping that we’ll play the best we can play tomorrow.
The Lady Rams (18-7) finished as the No. 2 seed in the 5A-South after a 48-33 loss to Lake Hamilton at Wolf Arena on March
4. The Lady Cyclones
(18-10) claimed the No. 3 seed in the
5A-West and are coming off a 71-62 home victory over Greenbrier on March 4.
“So they’re a re- ally good team,” said Brock. “They’re the biggest team we’ve played this year. They start four girls that are
5-11 plus, including a 6-1 freshman. So, really big, they press, they trap a lot so the first thing we’ve got to do is make sure we take care of the ball and get good looks going toward our basket. And if we do have turnovers, we need them to be the right turnovers and that it don’t lead to them scoring. And then with them, the size they have, we got to make sure we are body to body and create as much space as we can to rebound the ball. And then offensively, they have their coach’s daughter. (Junior Jaidyn Koerdt) is a really skilled player. They run a lot of stuff through her, so we’ve really got to do a good job getting through screens and doing a good job on her, making her looks tough. She’s going to score but just making her looks tough without excessive fouling.”
Brock noted a big part of the team’s preparation has been mental and making sure they stay focused on the task at hand.
VIDEO EXTRA LH Wolves coach previews tournament at hotsr.com.
“They’re super excited about it,” he said. “You know, at this time of year , we kind of know what we’re going to do and kind of game-plan for each team. And it’s the end at this point, so we just want to stay as focused and sharp as we can. They’re excited to play. … I told them it’s always a blessing when we get to the state tournament, even though we’ve had some success getting to here, and we just want to treat it as that. Treat it as a great opportunity to get to play the best we can play.”
Lake Hamilton boys head coach Scotty Pennington said that he is interested to see how his younger players react today.
“It’ll be interesting to see how our young guys respond to, you know, playing in the state tournament atmosphere and the pressures of that in the game,” he said. “You know, we’re so young, you just don’t know. They might be so young that they don’t realize that there is any pressure. But then again, they are — a lot of them are coaches’ kids, so they’ve seen this since they were little bitty, and they’re just itching to be a part of it.”
Pennington said that the Wolves (15-8) were not expected to make the state tournament this year.
“Going into the season, we didn’t even know if this group would make it to the tournament, much less to finish the conference runner up and get the two-seed,” he said. “So we kind of feel like this tournament is just icing on the cake. We’ve had a great season, and, you know, we would love to have a chance to Parkview, but let’s just stop right there because Vilonia is — you know, you’ve got to take care of them first.”
The Wolves are riding a fivegame winning streak that ended with a 62-51 win over conference champion Pine Bluff. The Eagles
(17-6) fell in the first round of their conference tournament before topping Siloam Springs
59-52 to take the No. 3 seed from the 5A-West.
“It benefited us not playing the tournament just because we — you know, once we moved the freshmen up, we really got on a roll,” Pennington said. “And I think we’ve won five or six games in a row now. And so finishing it out probably helped us because it allowed us to get more games in with those kids before we got into a one-anddone situation. But early on in the season COVID, I mean, it hit us pretty hard. We … played several games without — I don’t know if we played a game in the first 10 games where we had everybody.”
The Eagles are no stranger to the Wolves. The two teams faced off earlier this season, but
the lineups for both teams will be different than they were in their first game.
“We did play Vilonia early on in the year, but we didn’t have Jessup,” Pennington said. “He was out with a hand injury from football. Ty Robinson wasn’t moved up yet. KJ McDaniel was out with COVID protocol situation. … And they had two kids out, so you just don’t know. And I think what it does in the state tournament is, you don’t really know if the seedings are true to what the team actually is.”
Hot Springs girls head coach Josh Smith said the Lady Trojans (12-10) are excited for the opportunity to play in the state tournament, but they will have their hands full against a strong Greenwood team.
“I’ve told the girls it’s something to be proud of,” said Smith. “That you’ve earned the right to be here, to be the 3-seed. (Greenwood) has led their conference all year. They got beat in their conference final by a very good Vilonia team. … Let’s just see how far we can take it with this last run.”
After a 15-win streak, the Lady Bulldogs (21-4) fell in a March 3 matchup to Vilonia while Hot Springs comes off a 54-43 win over Sheridan.
“I don’t know if you stop Greenwood,” said Smith. “I think you can just hope to contain them a little bit. We tried to work on what they do pressure-wise, what they do in the half court. Offensively, they like to attack at you. A lot of three’s so that’s been our game plan — doing those things, making sure we’re keying in on them and recognizing what shooters are on the floor and who’s out there that we can contain and who can get out. Compete — that’s what we’re looking to do.”
Hot Springs managed to finish the season with no major injuries and despite the obstacles that COVID-19 presented, were able to keep their head above water and find a way to make it to the state tournament.
“This year’s been such a wild year,” said Smith. “Missed five games and I think seven overall counting non-conference. … You just hate to see that for the kids, but they’ve done a great job of dealing with it in stride and being positive at all times about it. Just proud of them for their resilience.. It’s a great time of year. It’s what you look forward to. I hate to see it wind down and come to an end, but you’re excited for the kids to get this opportunity.”
Lakeside boys head coach Eddie Lamb says he feels his team is well-prepared for today’s game against Mountain Home.
“Our kids, I think they’re excited about being there, and they’re working extremely hard this week,” he said. “We practiced on Sunday, of course. We come in on every Sunday at 3, and then (Monday) we had a good practice preparing for Mountain Home. … I think they’re extremely happy to get to go to the state tournament.”
The Rams (18-6) are coming off losses to Hot Springs and Pine Bluff, but the team enjoyed a five-game winning streak before the back-to-back losses. Mountain Home (10-13) enters the game coming off a 6168 March 4 loss to Russellville.
“Man, watching them on tape, they’re a good team,” he said. “And they’ve got two really good players that we’re really going to have to focus in on, and the whole team — their whole team’s capable — but we think it’s a good matchup overall for us. We have to, you know, a lot of times you put so much thought in the other team, you’ve got to worry about your own group. And right now, you know, the last two or three days of practice, we’ve been concerned about our own self, as well as Mountain Home, but we got to go out and execute and play good defense and rebound. Just like you do in any ballgame, but Mountain Home is a good ball club. So, but we feel good about it.”
Lamb is no stranger to the state tournament, but this is his first time taking the Rams to the tournament.
“I’m extremely proud of our kids,” he said. “I mean, to start the year, one of our goals was to make the state tournament, and as the year went on, we knew we were getting closer to our goal. So, as far as the team goes, I’m extremely proud, and we’re excited to be back in the state tournament. … You know, you never take that for granted, as a coach or a player, when you’ll get back. So to have this team in the state tournament, it’s exciting. So we’re excited.”
Lamb said that the COVID-19 pandemic brought more challenges for his team, and he is proud to see them reach the tournament despite the adversity.
“The start of the year, we didn’t even know what would pan out, what we were going to be able to do,” he said. “And then again, for my fourth year at Lakeside to go to the state tournament first time here at Lakeside, it’s been great. And the season’s been great. I think overall, the state’s done a great job, our school system’s done a great job, of keeping these kids as healthy as possible during the COVID times. And we’ve had to rearrange some things, how we done or practices, and we done all we can to get the season in and it’s great that the kids got to play. So even to get to play basketball and then even now to get to go to the state tournament, even in your hometown at Hot Springs hosting it, it’s been pretty cool for sure.”