Fayetteville, Springdale girls look to keep pace in 6A-West

Round 1 of the Fayetteville and Springdale girls basketball matchup turned into a 57-55 win for Springdale on Jan. 3 at Fayetteville’s Bulldog Arena.

Coaches Vic Rimmer of Fayetteville and Heather Hunsucker of Springdale have plenty of reason to believe Round 2 tonight should be just as exciting as the two teams meet in Springdale.

“We’re expecting it to be right down to the wire, just like it was at our place,” Rimmer said.

Both Fayetteville (17-7, 8-2) and Springdale (20-4, 9-2) enter tonight’s 6A-West Conference game trailing Fort Smith Northside (20-3, 9-1) for the league lead in the conference. Springdale holds a slight lead on second place due to having played an extra game in the conference slate as Fayetteville had last Friday off.

The winner will have sole control of second place.

“We’re excited it’s at home this time around,” Hunsucker said. “We’re going to give it the best effort we have.”

Fayetteville and Springdale prefer to play contrasting styles while on the court.

Fayetteville likes to use its size and play inside-out and doesn’t usually deploy full court pressure defensively. Springdale, meanwhile, is a small team in stature that likes to use its speed and athleticism to its advantage and will bring pressure.

Springdale’s chaotic style of play is what helped the team to a win in the first matchup.

“I think in Round 1 the reason it went our way was we were able to force 26 turnovers, and I think we matched them on the offensive boards,” Hunsucker said. “Whoever imposes their style of play is going to have the advantage. It really does matter the way the officials allow the game to be played. We can’t get in foul trouble. That’s just something we’re not able to do.

“We’re undersized and play fast and compete for rebounds and like to be physical. In the first game we felt like the officials let us play.”

In the first meeting, Charleen Hudson scored 14 points, Carolinda Hudson had 13 and Aubriana Wilson 12 as Springdale jumped out to a 30-17 lead and led 30-23 at halftime.

Fayetteville whittled the deficit down to 2 in the final seconds. Whitney Brown led Fayetteville with 19 points, while Maiesha Washington had 14 and Mariyah Moss 10.

“We had a large amount of turnovers,” Rimmer said. “They shot the three ball really well. I want to say they hit almost 50% from three.

“If the game is really fast and chaotic and we have a lot of turnovers, it’s very much in their favor.”

Two players who played key roles last time around won’t be available tonight due to injury — one from each team in Fayetteville’s Charley Rawlins and Springdale’s Adriana Hernandez.

“Fayetteville is a great team, and we know it’s going to be a great battle,” Hunsucker said.

Other 6A-West Conference games include Bentonville West visiting Bentonville, Rogers traveling to Fort Smith Northside and Fort Southside playing at Rogers Heritage.

The 5A-West features rivalry nights at Mountain Home visits Harrison and Greenwood plays at Van Buren. Alma travels to Siloam Springs.

Top 4A-1 games include Prairie Grove at Gentry and Farmington at Shiloh Christian, while Valley Springs visits Bergman in 3A-1 play.