Nighthawks rout Colts as season winds down
Park came out hungry Monday night at The Kettle to rout Arkansas-Cossatot 106-82 in an energetic performance.
“I think our guys did a really good job of executing our game plan going into the game,” said National Park College head coach Dillon Hargrove. “They’ve got a really good player in Terry Anderson. JoQuarius Valrie and a couple of other guys really took pride in guarding him tonight and held him to 2 points, I think, in the first half. That really changed the game to kind of get him into foul trouble early. And they have a great coach in coach (Robert) Byrd and a defense, you saw the trap early in the game, and we had troubles with that at their place and they did a great job executing and pushing the tempo a little bit for us.”
Although the Colts (9-6) took a 4-0 lead at the opening of the game, Valrie and 6-5 forward Sayvon Traylor got things going quickly for the Nighthawks (4-4), sparking a 14-0 run, prompting Byrd to call a timeout.
“They just competed harder,” said Byrd. “Plain and simple, they just came out with more intensity. You know, when we played them earlier in the year at our place, we were able to really, I think, surprise them and win that game and, you know, I think these guys came out ready and they competed at a really high level. Coach (Hargrove) had them extremely prepared and, you know, they got it done.”
Traylor helped keep the drive going by hitting another trey before Joe Ramey and Kylil Anderson hit shots from the field. Following a 3-pointer from Terry Clardy, NPC led 37-29 with 6:49 remaining in the first half.
Kamren Woods shot back with a right baseline trey to cut the deficit to 7 as Cameron Maxwell added more baskets off the drive. Ramey then began to take over, leading an 18-2 run with several transition buckets as well as a behind-the-back assist to Valrie for a transition dunk to stretch to a 59-36 lead with
57 seconds left.
Cossatot’s Dee Williams broke the offensive drought with a 3 from the left wing, but Kam Vick answered with a 3-point play to give the Nighthawks a 64-41 edge going into the second half.
“These guys that we have right now, I mean, and I’ve been talking about it all year, they ‘want’ to win,” Hargrove said. “And they play every single game like that. That’s one thing about this team — they play very, very hard. And they listen and they want to do well on the defensive side of things. Even if the tempo’s up and down, we know the score’s going to be a little bit higher than usual but that’s how we strategize. And the good thing about this team, they can control the tempo. They can go fast and they can go slow. And so they just do a really good job of executing our stuff.”
Things only got worse for the Colts as Vick opened the second half with a trey on the first possession. Of the team’s late foul trouble, Byrd said it’s “definitely not foul trouble.”
“Like I said, they just came out and they just really got to it and, you know, there’s no excuses,” he said. We took one to the chin today, so we’ll be alright.”
Play went back and forth as NPC, which is averaging 91 points a game, kept up the high pace to stretch out to a 96-61 lead following a pair of free throws by Kylil Anderson at the 7 minute mark. Maxwell sought to get Cossatot back into the game with 3-pointer from the top of the key, and Dillon Cheater followed up with a pull-up one of his own in transition. Kylil Anderson capped the offensive performance with a fast-break layup.
Valrie led NPC with 20 points, hitting 5 of 8 from the field, with six rebounds, a pair of blocks and an assist, while Ramey put up
18 points, six boards, six assists, a steal and a block. Traylor finished the night with 17 points, five boards, a pair of assists and a steal, Vick had 14 points, four assists, three
boards and a steal, Clardy had 11 points, four rebounds, a steal and a block, Kaiser had 9 points, a team-high eight rebounds and a block, Anderson had 8 points, six rebounds and a pair of assists, Powell had 7 points, seven boards and a block while Johnson tacked on 2 points with a rebound.
Maxwell led the Colts with 21 points, five rebounds, three steals and two assists while Anderson added 15 points, six rebounds and a pair of steals.
The Nighthawks host South Arkansas Community College Thursday before playing their final regular season game, a make up from Feb. 16 at Arkansas State Mid-South Monday.