Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Dauda, Barnett lead teams to pivotal victories
Maryam Dauda showed in one game why she is rated by a handful of national scouting services as the top post player in the country for 2021.
Dauda scored 17 points and eclipsed 1,000 points for her career during a 47-27 blowout against Fayetteville, a formidable opponent with two Division I signees in its lineup. Yet Dauda, a 6-foot-4 junior, dominated both ends of the court for Bentonville (22-1, 11-0), which holds a twogame lead with three left to play in 6A-West Conference action.
Besides scoring 17 points, Dauda was an intimidating presence in the middle with 6 blocked shots, 9 rebounds, and she displayed her versatility by sinking a 3-pointer from the top of the key to end a 10-0 run.
Dauda began the week with 18 points against Rogers Heritage and the two wins made Dauda an easy selection
for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette girls Player of the Week. Paxton Barnett is the boys’ Player of the Week.
Fayetteville (19-5, 9-2) entered the game with some momentum after a blowout win over Van Buren. But the Lady Bulldogs were no match last week for Bentonville, which increased its winning streak to 17 consecutive.
“Maryam did a great job setting the tone on both ends of the floor,” Bentonville coach Tom Halbmaier said. “Her ability to make plays only she can make really gave everyone the confidence to pull out the win.”
Elkins faced quite a challenge last week with games against Waldron and Charleston in 3A-1 West Conference play. But the Elks won both games to force a three-way tie for the conference championship with Waldron and Charleston.
Barnett, as usual, played a key role for the Elks with 14 points against Waldron and 24 points against Charleston. A packed gym at Elkins greeted the Elks, who jumped out to a 16-3 lead in the final regular-season game against Charleston.
Charleston fought back and got to within 50-49 in the fourth quarter following a three-point play by Jordan Fenner. But Barnett, who drove to the basket for many of his points, answered with two 3-pointers to give Elkins a 56-49 lead with just over two minutes remaining.
“Paxton came up huge in the biggest game of the season to this point,” Elkins coach Jared Porter said. “His leadership down the stretch was huge in helping us claim a share of the conference championship.”
With the win, Elkins (24-3, 12-2) earned the No. 2 seed for the conference tournament this week at Waldron. Waldron is the No. 1 and Charleston the No. 3 seed.
Rick Fires can be reached at rfires@nwadg.com or on Twitter @NWARick.