Camden Fairview loses league opener
PINE BLUFF - Camden Fairview made a furious comeback to rally from a 16-point deficit and force overtime in their conference opener against Watson Chapel on Friday, but Samuel King scored eight straight points in the final 71 seconds of the contest to lead the Wildcats to a 58-53 overtime victory.
The Cardinals (9-5) had a 53-50 lead with 1:23 to play in overtime following a baseline shot by Matthew Ollison. King got Chapel within one with two free throws with 1:11 to play, however, before Camden Fairview turned the ball over on a questionable travel call with 55 seconds left.
Samuel then hit a fade-away jumper with a hand in his face to give the home team a 54-53 lead with 46 seconds remaining. Af- ter Camden Fairview missed a 3-pointer on its end of the court, King was fouled with 19.6 seconds to play and hit both free throws for a 56-53 advantage for Chapel. Following another miss by the Cards, King hit two more free throws to seal the win with 2.3 seconds left.
With Camden Fairview’s two leading scorers, Jamarcheon Smith and Justin McCoy, on the bench in foul trouble, Chapel built a 36-20 lead midway through the third quarter. The Cardinals began the fourth quarter down 39-26, a deficit which would have been even bigger had Chave Zackery not hit a 3-pointer at the quarter buzzer.
With all the starter back in the game, however, the Cardinals began making a charge, with McCoy scoring inside to start the period and Zackery adding another 3. Free throws by Smith, Zackery and Ollison whittled the Chapel lead down to 39-35 midway through the final period.
Ollison had to temporarily leave the game after hitting his face on the floor and injuring his nose, but scores by Kimonte Wilson and McCoy had the Redbirds within 43-41 with under two minutes to play in regulation.
Following a free throw by Chapel’s Bryan Kentle, Camden Fairview was working the ball around looking for a good shot with under a minute to play when Chapel got a turnover and headed down the floor on a fast break for what appeared to be a lead building basket. Kevon Parnell blocked the lay up attempt from behind, however, and Zackery hit a gametying 3-pointer with 41 seconds remaining to knot the score at 44-44.
Chapel came out of a time out and immediately attacked the basket, with Benjamine Marcus dishing to Xavier Young for a lay up with 29 seconds left. Zackery was then fouled with 15.3 seconds remaining and the sophomore calmly sank both to send the game into OT at 46-46.
Zackery finished with 24 points, six rebounds and three blocks for the Cardinals, while McCoy had 13 points and eight boards. Parnell finished with 14 rebounds and three blocked shots.
Marcus finished with 20 points for Chapel, with King scoring 15.
CF coach Keith Zackery said he was proud of the way his team battled back, but noted the team simply “dug a hole early” that they had to fight their way out of.
“We went to a 1-3-1 zone there in the third that kind of slowed them down defensively and changed the pace of the game, and we had a chance to win at the end and just missed,” Zackery said. “We felt like if we could just get to the third quarter with Justin and Jamarcheon, that we could be OK. I thought we’d have some other guys play better offensively there in the third, but we just couldn’t put it in the hole.”
Zackery said his message to the team after the game was the conference season was just starting, and there was still a long way to go to determining the conference championship, especially with Chapel coming to Camden Fairview on Feb. 7.
“I told them its a long season, and that if we’ll just go out and take care of business, we can play for a conference championship at our own place,” Zackery said.
The Cardinals will return to action on Tuesday when they return to the Birdhouse to host DeQueen for senior games only.