Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Northside secures a break
Veteran Fort Smith Northside Coach Rickey Smith hasn’t given his Lady Bears many days off during this 30-year career on North B Street.
This week has been an exception.
“Our open date is on Friday, and we’ve given them a little mental break as much as a physical break,” Smith said. “We have a seven-day break, and hopefully that’s all it is with the weather. I looked at our schedule and we haven’t had a seven-day break since early November as far as games.”
The Lady Bears (15-3, 4-1) have won four straight 6A-West games since dropping the opener to Fayetteville in December, including a 60-28 win against rival Fort Smith Southside on Tuesday.
“We’re playing better,” Smith said. “We played a tough schedule.”
Other than a loss to Springfield (Mo.) Kickapoo in the championship game of the Pine and White Girls Basketball Invitational, the Lady Bears haven’t lost in almost a month since that loss to Fayetteville.
A supreme challenge awaits, however, with the Lady Bears travelling to Springdale, coached by former Lady Bear Heather Hunsucker, on Tuesday.
“Coach Hunsucker has been there through it all,” Smith said. “They play a very similar style to what we play. They’re tenacious. They’re good. I respect the way they play. It’s every possession, they’re just relentless on defense. They all shoot the ball real well.”
The Lady Bulldogs (152, 4-0) lead the conference and beat Fayetteville 57-55 in the first game back from the Christmas break last week.
“When they go on the road and knock off Fayetteville, that’s all you need to know,” Smith said. “They’re legitimate.”
The win was the first at Fayetteville since a 57-54 win in 2005 for the Lady Bulldogs. Their 4-0 start to conference play is their best start since also winning their first four games in 2018, and it’s the best overall start to the season since beginning the 2000-2001 season 11-1.
It’s also the final trip to Springdale’s Bulldog Arena with the new gymnasium scheduled to be ready in midFebruary.
The current nine-team conference has forced teams to begin conference games before Christmas to get all 16 games in before the state tournament, which has its dates set by the Arkansas Activities Association. It’s possible, though, going forward that the teams may choose to play three games in some weeks and start the conference season after Christmas instead.
“Hopefully, we can make some adjustments to that next year,” Smith said. “I’m not a fan of playing conference games before Christmas. It’s just different. For 28 years, everything in the first semester was to prepare us for the second semester. Then we play two of the favorites before we go to the Christmas break this year, and then we go to the Christmas tournament. It’s almost like reversing direction for a couple of weeks, then we go back to conference. I’ve always had my team in a routine and a mindset of how we want to prepare.”
VAN BUREN BOYS Shot makes ESPN
The video of Van Buren’s Trenton Cooley banking in an 80-foot buzzer-beating shot to end the third quarter in Tuesday’s 68-45 win at Greenwood has gone viral across the internet.
It even made the ESPN Top Plays of the Day at No. 2.
“It was a pretty solid shot, just like we drew it up,” Van Buren Coach Brad Autry said. “We wanted him to heave it up threequarter court.”
Greenwood missed two free throws with Weston Wilcox rebounding the miss on the second one and flipping a short pass to Cooley, who chunked it almost the length of the court for three points for a highlight reel moment.
Cooley finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 4 steals.
Van Buren is scheduled to host Mountain Home tonight. Van Buren reached out to possibly move the game to Thursday ahead of the forecasted winter weather, but Mountain Home declined.
Van Buren is scheduled to travel to rival Alma on Tuesday. Van Buren swept both doubleheaders last season. The Pointers won 61-36 and, 69-46, while the Lady Pointers won 43-38 and 61-36.
GREENWOOD GIRLS Mistakes on film
After narrowly beating Russellville 71-70 in overtime to open 5A-West play last Friday, Greenwood Coach Clay Reeves took his Lady Bulldogs through a film study session.
“We didn’t play very good defense or rebound against Russellville,” senior Brooklyn Woolsey said. “We had to watch the film, and he had 71 clips of the game to watch. He said he should make us run for every mistake that we had. He was pretty hard on us.”
Greenwood led 18-3 six minutes into the game but was outscored in the second, third and fourth quarters before rallying to win in overtime. The Lady Bulldogs were outrebounded 34-24 after the first quarter and gave up 19 offensive rebounds in the game.
On Tuesday, the Lady Bulldogs had no letdown after a 14-0 start and 20-8 lead after the first quarter against Van Buren.
“We started well,” Reeves said. “I don’t usually use a lot of timeouts, but you learn something about every team as the season progresses. They learn some stuff that I’m expecting, and I’m seeing how different teams will react to different situations. I used a few more timeouts early just to remind them of what we needed to do. Not really seeing if we were going to do them, just to remind them that we needed to do these things better and to not let up.”
Greenwood outscored Van Buren in all four quarters and won going away 65-34.
Woolsey provided the impetus with two threepointers in the first two minutes and three in the first quarter in all. She finished with five threepointers for 15 points.
“I’m just trying to help my teammates,” Woolsey said. “They’re getting me the ball, they’re getting me open shots and I’ve just got to hit them.”
Greenwood is scheduled to travel to Harrison tonight. Greenwood tried to move the game to Thursday ahead of the forecasted winter weather, but Harrison refused.
ALMA Taking wins
The Alma Airedales defeated Siloam Springs 60-49 on Tuesday to start 5A-West Conference play 2-0 for the first time since beating Vilonia, Siloam Springs and Little Rock Christian to start the 2019 conference schedule.
Israel Towns-Robinson, Easton Boggs and Miles Kendrick combined for 46 points in the win.
On the girls side, Lady Airedales Coach Chanlee Bottoms earned her first conference win as head coach with a 46-38 win against Siloam Springs on Tuesday.
Sisters Jaden and Jordan Gramlich combined to score all 15 points for the Lady Airedales in the fourth quarter for the win.
Alma is scheduled to travel to Russellville tonight.
Any games not played today due to the weather will be rescheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 30, which is the conference’s makeup date.