Mayflower advances after sluggish first half

Mayflower came alive in the second half to take a 6141 victory over Jacksonville Lighthouse in the 3A-3 Tournament at Central Arkansas Christian on Thursday afternoon.

The Eagles earned a spot into next week’s Class 3A state tournament in Clinton.

“We had a decent first quarter, then we got into some foul trouble and we had to put some different players and it kind of messed up our offensive continuity,” said Mayflower Coach Brent Stallings, whose team led 22-20 at the half. “When we came back for the third quarter, I kind of felt like once we got our guys in there in the proper places, we could start scoring.”

The Eagles lost starting center Braxton McCuien, a 6-6 senior, and point guard Kaleb Moody, a 5-8 sophomore, midway through the first half.

“When the two guys came out, it looked pretty bad but we hung in there and managed a two-point lead at the half,” Stallings said. “Once we got everybody out there together and could keep them functioning as the starting five, I though we would take off. I just didn’t know if we would keep them from taking off and we did a pretty good job with that.”

Mayflower held a 17-12 lead heading to the second quarter, but McCuien picked up his second foul 28 seconds into the second quarter and was sent to the bench. His absence allowed the Wolves to tie the score 17-17. By the time the clock reached the 2:19 mark, Jacksonville Lighthouse again tied the score 20-20.

Westin Pickell gave the Eagles a 22-20 lead when he stole the ball and scored with 1:45 left in the opening half.

With McCuien back in the lineup in the third quarter, Mayflower scored the first 10 points of the half and eventually took a 45-26 lead heading into the final quarter.

“We did what we wanted to do and that was qualify for the state tournament,” Stallings said.