Rimmer pleased by defensive effort

FORT SMITH — When Fayetteville Coach Vic Rimmer saw his Lady Bulldogs fighting for rebounds and diving for loose balls, he said he knew his team was going to play well.

Fayetteville bolted out to an early double-digit lead, then let the defense take over in the second half to pull away for a 59-28 6A-West Conference victory over Fort Smith Southside on Thursday night at Southside Arena.

The Lady Bulldogs (127, 4-1 6A-West), along with Springdale Har-Ber and Fort Smith Northside, moved into a tie for first place after Springdale’s loss at Bentonville on Thursday night. Bentonville is right behind the four leaders at 3-2.

Rimmer said he expects the logjam to exist all season.

“I think the top of our league is very competitive,” Rimmer said. “Any of the five teams can be good on any given night. This is good for our league. It is good for our kids to face this good competition.”

The Mavericks started the game in a zone defense, attempting to force Fayetteville to shoot three-pointers, so the Lady Bulldogs countered with a full-court press to speed up the tempo.

“They did a good job in the zone, so we had to try to force the tempo,” Rimmer said. “We were able to get some easy baskets on runouts.”

Fayetteville forced six turnovers in the first quarter, then got consecutive threepoint jumpers by Whitney Brown to build a 16-6 lead with two minutes left in the quarter.

The Lady Bulldogs, which forced 10 first-half turnovers, then finished the first half with a 9-3 spurt, capped by a Brown stickback of a missed free throw with 10 seconds left, for a 31-17 at halftime lead.

“Defensively, we have gotten better and better as the season has gone along,” Rimmer said. “[Fayetteville assistant coach Gail] Striegler teaches defense so well and our kids have bought into playing hard on the defensive end of the floor.

“What I saw tonight was great effort. We were getting offensive rebounds and we were on the floor diving for loose balls. If you are playing hard, then you are usually playing hard defensively.”

Fayetteville then put the game away with a 17-6 third quarter to open a commanding 48-23 lead. Syniah Coachman scored seven points in the quarter to lead the Lady Bulldogs.

Coachman paced Fayetteville with 16 points, while Mariyah Moss added 12 as nine Lady Bulldogs scored. Sophia Neihouse led Southside with seven points.