Conway holds off Cabot, Cook in win

CABOT — Amyia Taylor’s phone lit up Saturday with a message from Conway girls basketball Coach Ashley Hutchcraft.

The first part was simple — stay off your feet, hydrate and rest up for Tuesday’s game at Cabot.

The second part, instructing her to prepare to shadow Cabot star guard Jenna Cook, wasn’t quite so straightforward.

With a key contribution from Taylor, the No. 2 Lady Wampus Cats defeated the No. 4 Panthers 66-61 on Tuesday night to claim sole possession of the top spot in the 6A-Central Conference.

Taylor followed the plan to perfection in the first half, face-guarding the University of Central Arkansas signee and holding her to five points and one field goal.

In theory, that meant Conway (19-6, 6-1) should have been leading by double digits at the break, while Cabot (22-3, 5-2) searched for answers on offense.

Instead, the Panthers got their points from from Bre Hall and Abbi Grace Cunningham — who scored 10 and nine points in the first half, respectively — and trailed 33-32 at halftime.

“I thought we did a poor job on [Hall] defensively,” Hutchcraft said. “We did nothing we worked on in practice, and she made us pay for it. I think that just goes with good coaching. Coach [Jay] Cook is an awesome coach, and he’s not going to let a player sit out there and not be guarded.”

Cabot had the opposite approach in the first half, holding the rest of the Lady Wampus Cats to three points, while Alexis Cox scored 20 and Emerie Bohanon 10.

“Cabot’s really good at Cabot,” Hutchcraft said. “This is a hard place to play, and we knew that coming into it. I think both teams knew what was at stake as far as being the sole [No. 1] in our conference, so I think you could tell that with how both teams were grinding every single possession out. For us to come here and get a

“I don’t think we take anything away from Cabot’s grittiness — I don’t want any part of them in the state playoffs.”

Conway girls basketball Coach Ashley Hutchcraft

win, and it be like that, kind of back and forth, [I’m] very, very proud.”

In the second half, it was much of the same. Cox finished with 32 points, while Bohanon had 17.

In the fourth quarter, as Cook was breaking loose of Taylor’s stranglehold for 16 points, a third Wampus Cat took the offensive burden.

Both offenses went cold in the fourth quarter as Conway outscored Cabot 10-9. All but two of Conway’s points came from junior guard Samyah Jordan.

“When [Cox] has 20 and [Bohannan] has 10, and outside of that no one else has been productive, that’s a problem, especially for Samyah,” Hutchcraft said. “I thought she was very passive. They were sagging off her. Samyah’s a great shoot, and she can score, but she would rather get to the paint. And that’s exactly what they were doing, which was a great gameplan.”

In a one-possession game with less than 30 seconds remaining, Cabot went back to Cook. But for the last time Tuesday night, Taylor made a play, stripping the ball from the senior guard to ice the game.

Hutchcraft said she told her team at halftime the grittier squad would ultimately win the back-and-forth affair. Taylor’s game-sealing steal may have been the grittiest play of them all.

“I don’t think we take anything away from Cabot’s grittiness — I don’t want any part of them in the state playoffs,” Hutchcraft said. “I think they’re that good.”