LR Christian putting process on line in final

Trusting the process has become somewhat of a cliche in basketball circles, but that’s precisely what Little Rock Christian boys Coach Kyle Pennington implored his Warriors to do following an early-season loss in November to Class 6A semifinalist Bentonville West.

Pennington’s pleas weren’t ignored because Little Rock Christian has a chance to complete that process today on the biggest of stages.

The Warriors will try to win their first state title in 18 years when they square off against Blytheville in the Class 4A boys final at 1: 45 p. m. in front of what’s expected to be a huge crowd inside Bank OZK Arena in Hot Springs.

But for Little Rock Christian’s first-year coach, his team is exactly where he believed they would be all along — as long as they bought in to what he was selling.

“I always felt like we could be in this spot, I’m not gonna lie,” Pennington explained. “I knew it was going to be a process. We just weren’t put together yet, and it kind of showed in that game [against Bentonville West]. But at the same time, we showed flashes of how good we can be.

“It took a while, especially with it being the first year with a new culture, a new style of play. But once it started clicking for us, we really got going.”

Pennington is no stranger to getting things going. Prior to taking over the Warriors’ program last spring, he won more than 75% of his games at Russellville and led the Cyclones to 5A-West Conference titles in all four of his years at the helm.

That same winning mentality has been immediate at Little Rock Christian (26-8) where he’s got his young team on the verge of doing something that hasn’t been done at the school since 2005 when the Warriors beat Pulaski Academy to win the Class 3A crown. But Pennington and his group will be staring over at a team that’s just as hungry for supremacy.

Blytheville (34-1) has made it its business to get back to the final after coming up short a year ago to Magnolia. The Chickasaws haven’t lost to a team from Arkansas this season and have won their past 12 games by an average of nearly 25 points. The closest encounter they’ve had during that stretch was a 62-59 victory over Little Rock Christian in the 4A-East Regional final on Feb. 25 before they solidified a second straight trip to Hot Springs by outlasting Farmington 65-53 in the semifinals.

“[This year] is different because not every time when you get there, it’s not like you have the exact same team coming back,” Blytheville Coach McKenzie Pierce said. “This year, we basically did so that was a motivating factor.”

Both Blytheville and Little Rock Christian, who were ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, when the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Class 4A Boys Preseason Super Six was released in November, are dotted with standouts throughout their rosters. Chickasaw senior forward Rashaud Marshall, who just recently re- opened his recruitment after committing to Mississippi, is averaging a double-double while the Warriors’ Landren Blocker, a junior, and J.J. Andrews, a freshman, have numerous NCAA Division I offers between them.

The teams’ supporting casts are highly capable as well, which makes the rematch between the two even more intriguing.

“They’ve got a really good basketball team,” Pennington said of Blytheville. “Coach Pierce has got pretty much everyone back from last year and added the point guard that transferred from Forrest City. So I’ve got a ton of respect for them and that team. When we played them the last time, I felt like we started slow, and they started really hot. But then the game flipflopped.

“I thought we played really, really well for the last two and a half quarters, and we did some things to slow them down.”

The Warriors are one of the few teams that have even come close to slowing down the Chickasaws, but that may not have been possible had Little Rock Christian not experienced another close defeat, this time to Joe T. Robinson, in late January.