Campbell’s basket lifts Bentonville

6A-WEST GIRLS BENTONVILLE 48, SPRINGDALE 46

BENTONVILLE — Ella Campbell took the pass in the corner next to the Bentonville bench, dribbled to her left and saw a seam between teammate Sam Rhuda and her Springdale defender.

The senior guard took her chance, and the result was the decisive bucket with 21 seconds remaining as the Lady Tigers claimed a 48-46 victory over the Lady Bulldogs during 6A-West Conference action Tuesday night in Tiger Arena.

“We really didn’t have a set play there,” Campbell said. “I would have been happy if any of my teammates had taken that last shot.

“I just knew it would be our best option to get to the rim on that and just score points. So cutting and finding the open girl, we did a good job on that. I saw an open opportunity and just made the drive and was able to finish.”

Campbell’s closing heroics were needed after Bentonville (22-6, 11-3) watched a 10- point lead disappear during the final 41/2 minutes. Campbell’s bucket gave the Lady Tigers a 45-34 lead with 4:47 remaining, but Springdale (14-12, 5-8) scored 11 of the next 12 points and tied the score at 46 on Kaiya McCoy’s layup with 1:18 left to play.

After Campbell’s layup put Bentonville back in front, Springdale opted to go for the tie after calling a timeout with 8 seconds remaining. Aubriana Wilson, however, had her shot contested after she drove to the right side of the bucket and couldn’t get it to fall.

“We just need to do a better job of closing out games and knowing the situation,” Bentonville coach Tom Halbmaier said. “I’m proud that we won the game, but we were fortunate — very fortunate — to get a win.

“They sped us up, and it was just the turnovers. We had 23 turnovers against them, and we just didn’t take care of the basketball.

I was very disappointed in that. We’re much better than that, and we’ll be much better than that by Friday night.”

Bentonville jumped out to an early 7-0 lead, but Springdale turned the tables during a 7-minute period where they outscored the Lady Tigers 19-5 and held a 29-18 lead on McCoy’s 3-pointer with 2:24 before halftime. Bentonville then closed it to 29-22 before halftime, then outscored Springdale 15-6 in the third quarter and took a 37-35 lead on Olivia Rustad’s bucket with 41 seconds left.

Campbell finished with 16 points and Rustad added 15 for Bentonville, which remains one game behind Fort Smith Northside for the 6A-West’s top spot heading into Friday’s home game against Rogers. Charleen Hudson had 16 points for Springdale, which now drops into seventh place in the standings after Fayetteville and Rogers posted wins Tuesday, while Wilson added 14.

“We really didn’t have a set play there. I would have been happy if any of my teammates had taken that last shot.”

Bentonville’s Ella Campbell after hitting the gamewinning basket with 21 seconds left Tuesday to defeat Springdale in a 6A-West girls game