Defending champion Salem returns to familiar territory
The feelings that Salem girls Coach Josh Bateman has felt this week haven’t been out of the ordinary. The emotions are also ones that apparently never get old for him.
The Lady Greyhounds will defend their state crown at noon today against Bergman at Bank OZK Arena in Hot Springs in a battle between the classification’s past two titlists.
“Everybody’s super excited about this,” Bateman said. “This is the third time we’ve made the finals in four years, so I don’t think the feeling has changed any. It’s still an exciting feeling, and everybody’s ready to go.
“Not many people get to play as many games as you can play, and we’re getting the opportunity to do that.”
Bateman’s group fully intends to make the most of their recent foray to Bank OZK Arena. He also knows pulling off a second straight victory in the final won’t be easy.
Salem (30-6) lost to Melbourne 55-34 in the Class 2A championship game in 2021, but the Lady Greyhounds bounced back to capture last season’s title by beating Lamar 56-36. In between those years, Bergman (41-3) took home the Class 3A trophy in 2022.
The fact that this year’s contest will be one of several regular-season rematches only heightens the intrigue. The Lady Panthers took a 5638 win over Salem on Nov. 18 in a game that served as a test for both.
But the Lady Greyhounds endured several challenges throughout the year. Four of their six losses came to teams that are playing for state titles, while another was to Class 6A semifinalist Cabot. The other defeat was a two-point setback to Nettleton, which lost in the Class 5A state tournament to Vilonia, which is playing for a championship Friday.
“I think the girls did a pretty good job of just understanding that this was going to be a year of us trying to get better every day and every game,” he said. “Last year, I had so many [players] coming back from the season before that everything just kind of ran itself. They were used to everything, and everybody had experience. But I told them last summer that we were going to have a moment in the year where we weren’t going to be very good.
“I told them they’ve got to be able to handle that and just have that growth mindset to get better every day. The way we played in November, people probably thought that there was no way we’d get back to the [final], but the girls started to find their identity.”
That identity reveal was fueled by guard Marleigh Sellars, who was the most valuable player of last year’s championship game. The senior is averaging nearly 20 points and eight assists per game while routinely guarding the opposing team’s best player. Others like Maddie Keen and Olivia Dockins, also seniors, have also had noteworthy impacts.
Those three will need to have similar effects against a Lady Panther crew that spent the majority of the season ranked No. 1 in Class 3A.
Coach James Halitzka has led Bergman to two double-digit winning streaks this season, and it is coming off a tough 66-59 win over Mayflower in the state semifinals.
“We’ve played them, and we know how good they are,” Bateman said of Bergman. “Every girl can hurt you in some way offensively. They don’t have a player that you don’t have to worry about, and they’ll go on huge runs if you’re not careful.
“And then Coach Halitzka makes them guard also. We’ve played teams that maybe aren’t that good defensively but good offensively or vice versa. Bergman does both very well.”
Bateman mentioned the Lady Greyhounds will have to match everything the Lady Panthers throw at them while making them earn everything they get. However, he also pointed out that the main thing Salem needs to do is play its brand of basketball.
“We’ve played 36 games, so we’re not going to change much now,” he said. “[Bergman] is 41-3 for a reason and dang good at what they do. But we’re as ready as we can possibly be for this moment.”