Muldrew sparks Springdale to road win

SPRINGDALE 58, FORT SMITH SOUTHSIDE 47

FORT SMITH — Courtland Muldrew has the ability to provide offensive spark with his shooting and passing abilities at a high level.

Springdale needed both for an early spark Tuesday night at Fort Smith Southside.

The sophomore guard provided the team’s initial five points to get things going and finished with a game-high 17. That allowed Springdale to pull away for a 58-47 victory against Fort Smith Southside in a 6A-West matchup.

“He is a spark plug and can get buckets pretty quickly,” Springdale coach Jeremy Price said. “And when he is facilitating as well, it really makes us that much more difficult to guard. I’m proud of his effort because we moved him around the floor a lot and he embraced that challenge.”

After Springdale (19-6, 8-3 6A-West) missed its initial five shots of the game, Muldrew, who finished with four assists, jump-started the offense by scoring eight of the team’s 14 first-quarter points.

“We know we are a good team, but sometimes we get off to slow starts,” Muldrew said. “We have a lot of talent on this team. I just try to help lead the way with my teammates to make enough plays to get the win.”

He started a 7-0 run at the end of the first quarter with a 3-point basket and capped it with an alley-oop pass to Aiden Gazaway. That dunk allowed the Bulldogs to take a 14-10 lead after the initial quarter after being down 10-7.

“I knew my boy was coming, and he always tells me to throw a lob,” Muldrew said with a smile. “I just threw it up there. That was a pretty fun moment early in the game to provide some momentum.”

Southside (5-16, 1-9) got a 3-pointer to fall from George Herrell to cut Springdale’s advantage to just 19-16 in the second quarter. But that’s when the Bulldogs took over and found their rhythm again. They used a 12-0 scoring stretch to take a 31-16 lead into halftime.

“We felt really good at halftime, but I think it made us comfortable in the second half,” Price said. “We finished that second quarter really well. We just need to find a way to play every quarter that way.”

Springdale used its firsthalf momentum to jump out to a 40-20 lead early in the third quarter with a 9-4 scoring stretch. The Bulldogs had six different players score points in the frame.

Southside was able to find its groove in the fourth quarter and outscored Springdale 19-12. After allowing just 16 first-half points on defense, Springdale gave up 31 second-half points.

Behind a 10-point fourth quarter from Alex Roper, who finished with 14 points, Southside made Springdale’s lead to just 51-40 in the final quarter. But the Mavericks couldn’t cut into the Bulldogs’ edge much after that. Yazed Taforo also had five of his team-high 15 points in the final quarter for Southside.

Springdale, which now has won three of its past five games, received plenty of help on offense outside of Muldrew. Cy Bates off the bench added 13 points and 10 rebounds, while Tevin Tate also chipped in 10 points.