Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
River Valley high school basketball report
“Obviously, this is going to be a great challenge again, but we get to play at home and I know our team will be ready to play and focused,” Reeves said. “We know it’s going to be a really good game.”
Greenwood won at Russellville 71-70 in overtime in the conference opener. The Lady Bulldogs led 18-3 just six minutes into the game but were outscored in each of the last three quarters. Russellville even took a 68-64 lead with the first two baskets of overtime before Anna Trusty capped a wild comeback with a layup for the lead with 7.6 seconds left after a steal at midcourt by Izzy Smith, who passed to Carley Sexton, who quickly hit Trusty flashing down the court.
Nine players, including Greenwood’s five starters — Trusty, Smith, Sexton, Brooklyn Woolsey and Kylah Pearce — scored in double digits that night.
Guard Brenna Burk led Russellville with 16 points, and on Tuesday she scored 27 against Mountain Home with 20 of Russellville’s 24 first-quarter points.
“She probably had 20 of those in the first quarter,” Reeves said. “They shot really well. They’ve been clicking. All of their players have shot well.”
Senior post Taleigha Ealy had 15 points and 16 rebounds in the first meeting against Greenwood.
6A-WEST Second half opens
The 6A-West Conference began the second half of conference play last Friday.
The league-leading Fort Smith Northside Lady Bears (19-3, 8-1) had their open date Tuesday and will play seven straight playing dates now, including four straight Friday nights on the road.
That gauntlet begins tonight at Springdale HarBer (16-7, 7-3).
Northside began the second half of conference play with a 53-33 win over Fort Smith Southside last Friday.
The win was the 50th for Northside Coach Rickey Smith over the Lady Mavericks against just 13 losses.
“That’s a lot of times playing Southside High School,” Smith said. “Anytime you beat your rival it’s good for the program.”
Northside had to score 20 points in the second quarter to finally open up a sizeable lead after leading just 13-11 midway through the second quarter.
“We’re proud of this win,” Smith said. “Southside has shown tremendous improvement since the first basketball game. The effort they’re playing with, you have to commend them. They play so hard. They’re good kids and have good character.”
The Lady Bears hit just two of their first 18 field goal attempts in the game and led just 9-8 two minutes into the second quarter.
“We didn’t shoot it very well,” Smith said. “We wanted to have that one shot for a 20-point lead, and it doesn’t work that way. I’m glad the game turned out that way now the kids will focus a little more, I hope, going into the open week and at Har-Ber.”
Northside won the first meeting against Springdale Har-Ber 51-47 at home in December.
“It will be a tremendous battle,” Smith said. “The kids left a little frustrated [Friday], and that’s good. I want them to be frustrated. I added to the frustration. I want to challenge them to get better.”
It’s also a big game for the Grizzlies (10-14, 3-6), who defeated the Mavericks 7668 in overtime last Friday. It was the second overtime game between the rivals this season with Southside winning the first one 63-60.
“When we went to Southside and the game went into overtime, the look in my guy’s eyes — and as a coach I had seen that look before — was I hope we can find a way to win this game,” Northside Coach McKenzie Pierce said. “The look this time was we’re winning this game. I think that comes from our preparation in practice. We had two tremendous days of practice and there’s a reason the saying ‘practice how you play and play how you practice’ has been around 100 years and will be around 100 more.”
For Pierce, it was his first experience with the Battle of Rogers Avenue.
“It’s really unique; two schools this size in the same town that love basketball with a lot of history,” Pierce