Patience pays off for LR Fair

RUSSELLVILLE — According to Little Rock Fair Coach Charlie Johnson, all his team needed was a little more patience.

Fair trailed by six points in the game’s first six minutes, but it responded to Johnson’s message during a timeout with an adjustment necessary for a 5146 victory over the Cabot Panthers in the Holiday Hoops for Hunger Basketball Tournament at Cyclone Arena on Wednesday. “We just had to be more patient on offense,” Johnson said. “We needed that, and we needed to start helping each other on defense.”

Johnson’s teams at Fair have relied on a 2-3 zone defense since the 1990s, and he said players who are new to his defensive approach sometimes fail to rotate as the ball moves around the perimeter.

“They like to stand and watch,” Johnson said. “When the ball moves, you have to move. The first time the ball moves and you stand, you’re beat.”

“They are very athletic, and they play good defense,” Cabot Coach Jerry Bridges said. “That’s Charlie Johnson’s staple. I’ve been following them over the years, and they’re not going to beat themselves much. They’re going to be in games for that reason.”

Cabot led 13-7 after senior forward Landon Vaught’s 12foot baseline jumper with 9:42 left in the first half — the tournament uses two 16-minute halves. Johnson called Fair’s first timeout afterward, and his team responded with a 6-0 run over the next four minutes to tie the score on senior guard Michael Foust’s layup.

“When we got behind, we didn’t panic,” Johnson said. “We finally got patient on offense. When we run our offense, we can score, but when we get all out of kilter, we struggle.”

Foust and senior forward Mikalen Hawkins each scored 14 points to lead Fair.

Senior guard Jalen Brown led Cabot with 13 points.

Fair led 21-19 at halftime and looked geared to pull away when Hawkins’ 12-foot jumper gave it a 39-29 lead with 6:22 left in the game.

Fair’s lead was 47-39 after Foust scored on a layup with three minutes left, but Cabot scored on three of its next four possessions and pulled within 48-46 on senior guard Mario May’s three-pointer with 50 seconds left.