Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Northside rolls
Jersey Wolfenbarger, who has signed with the University of Arkansas, had 26 points to lead Fort Smith Northside to a 75-55 victory over Farmington on Tuesday.
GIRLS FORT SMITH NORTHSIDE 75, FARMINGTON 55
FORT SMITH — Fort Smith Northside’s pressure was too much for Farmington to overcome.
The Lady Bears used a 15- 0 run in the second quarter to seize control and down the Lady Cardinals 7555 in a nonconference game at Kaundart Fieldhouse on Tuesday.
Both teams originally had other games scheduled Tuesday, including Northside’s lone scheduled game against city rival Fort Smith Southside. The Southside game was canceled Saturday, and by Sunday evening the Northside-Farmington game was a go.
Farmington Coach Brad Johnson said his team, the defending Class 4A state co-champions, already has had six games canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Farmington now will travel to defending 5A co-champion Greenwood on Saturday.
“We need these games against quality opponents. That is what we have tried to sell these kids on,” Johnson said. “We need to test ourselves to see where we are at. We need the game reps to get ready for our league [4A-1 Conference] because it starts when we start back [next week].”
Both coaches said playing games is important at this juncture.
“Right now, playing beats the heck out of practice,” Northside coach Rickey Smith said. “This game was almost like conditioning while playing a game, as we have not touched a basketball in nearly 10 days.”
Northside had several scoring spurts, including a 7-0 run in 90 seconds midway through the first quarter to build a 15-10 lead.
The Lady Cardinals climbed to within 17-16 with 4:52 left in the second quarter on a Victoria Kersey
stick back of her own miss. Kersey scored 26 points.
The Lady Bears seized control with a game-changing run keyed by a defense that forced four turnovers in that stretch.
Haitiana Releford started the run with a three- point play. University of Arkansas signee Jersey Wolfenbarger, who scored 26 points, added four points during the run. Releford scored four more points to give Northside a 32-16 lead with 2: 05 left in the half.
“I thought their pressure got to us a little bit, and they converted a lot of those turnovers into baskets,” Johnson said. “There were times we settled in and were able to break their pressure.
“They exposed some things on us defensively that we needed to see. They are a great team. I told the girls afterward that I was not disappointed in our effort. I thought we played really hard.”
The Lady Bears led 37-23 at halftime.
“The bench also came in during the run and played well,” Smith said. “Though [Farmington] hurt us some in transition, I think the tempo hurt them a little bit. We had a hard time scoring until our pressure got us some easy baskets.”
Releford recorded 14 points for Northside. Megan Hernandez scored 12 for Farmington.
BOYS FS NORTHSIDE 75, FS SOUTHSIDE 56
The Grizzlies (4-4) pulled away in the second quarter to beat the Mavericks (1-8) for the sixth consecutive time. Northside now leads the all-time series 79-43.
With 5: 25 left in the second quarter, Southside trailed 17-16 and had a chance to take the lead but missed a pair of free throws. From that point on, Northside dominated.
The Grizzlies outscored the Mavericks 20-8 in the next five minutes to open up a 37-24 halftime edge. The Northside advantage grew to more than 20 midway through the third quarter.
Tamaury Releford led three Grizzlies in double figures with 17, while Connor Coats poured in 13 and Jacob Joe added 12. Dmitri Lloyd scored 11 to lead the Mavericks.