Conway wins with hustle, muscle
VAN BUREN — Conway led by 15 points when Junior Williams dove headfirst in an attempt to save the ball before it rolled out of bounds in the opening round of the Class 7A state boys basketball tournament.
Williams’ second-half play exemplified the intensity Conway brought to the court Wednesday en route to a 48-34 victory against Fayetteville at Clair Bates Arena.
Conway (15-13) used two big scoring runs, and Fayetteville (12-15) had no answer for the Wampus Cats’ athleticism, especially in the post where 6-6 senior Gentrell Taylor and 6-7 junior Blake Bradshaw combined for 21 points and 12 rebounds.
“I think entering the game we knew we had to attack inside, not only with post feeds, but off the dribble,” Conway Coach Will Johnson said. “Our guys bought into that and they understood it. It’s something we’ve been coaching all year. Today we did a really good job of getting that done.”
Fayetteville Coach Kyle Adams said he knew the Bulldogs faced a difficult matchup inside. He said he hoped the Bulldogs would be able to counter that by shooting well from the perimeter, but Fayetteville was 2 of 16 from behind the threepoint line.
“If you can’t get something on the block, then you have to rely on perimeter shooting,” Adams said. “For us early in the year that was an Achilles heel, but since the second rotation of our conference we’ve shot the ball pretty well. I attribute that more to their defense. I thought Will had their kids ready to play.”
Fayetteville led 9-7 when Bradon Simon scored inside with under a minute to play in the first quarter. Conway’s Kendarious Smith made two free throws with 1.9 seconds left in the quarter, and the Wampus Cats outscored the Bulldogs 9-0 to take a 16-9 lead when Taylor came up with a turnover near half court and hit a layup.
Conway scored 21 points off 18 Fayetteville turnovers.
Fayetteville trailed 21-15 at halftime, but the Wampus Cats against the Bulldogs 9-0 to open the third quarter to take a 30-15 lead, and Fayetteville never seriously threatened the rest of the way.
“We did a good job of closing out and flying out at their shooters today,” Johnson said. “And after the shot went up, we blocked out well.”
Taylor finished with 11 points and Bradshaw 10 for Conway. Tyler Roth led the Bulldogs with 12 and Caleb Finney had 9.
LITTLE ROCK CENTRAL 60, BENTONVILLE WEST 55
The third-seeded Tigers jumped out to a big lead early, but Bentonville West never let Central pull away in its first state tournament.
Bentonville West outscored Central 37-28 in the second half, but it could never get closer than five points.
Cameron Johnson’s game-high 18 led Central (20-9). Jacobia Platt II and Donald Richardson each scored 12 and Raekwon Rogers finished with 10.
Collier Blackburn had 17 points and 10 rebounds for West (12-16), Boston Barron finished with 11 points for West, a first-year program with no seniors on the roster. Gabe Hornsby added 9 points.
Central will take on No. 2 seed Bentonville at 8:30 tonight.
CABOT 56, ROGERS HERITAGE 44
The defending state champions held off Heritage to advance in Wednesday’s late game.
The Panthers (20-6) will take on No. 1 seed Springdale Har-Ber at 5:30 p.m. Friday.
Matt Stanley led the Panthers with a game-high 17 points and Bobby Joe Duncan added 13.
Junior Seth Stanley led Heritage (1513) with 14 points.