Southside limits turnovers, beats West

6A-WEST GIRLS FORT SMITH SOUTHSIDE 55, BENTONVILLE WEST 45

FORT SMITH — All season long, Fort Smith Southside girls Coach Robert Brunk has preached to his team about taking care of the basketball.

In games when the Lady Mavericks limit turnovers, they have a chance to win. When they don’t, the games get away from them quickly.

Southside only committed 13 turnovers while forcing 23 to capture its second 6A-West victory of the season, a 55-45 win over Bentonville West at Southside Arena on Friday.

Sophomore Airy Acevedo scored 13 points to lead the Lady Mavericks while Felicity Suggs added 11.

“This is one of her best games this season,” Brunk said of Acevedo.

The win also completed a season sweep of the Wolverines, a feat the Lady Mavericks (3-23, 2-11) have not done since sweeping Springdale two seasons ago.

Brunk decided to run a 2-3 zone and a 1-3-1 trap that he thought would work better instead of the usual man-toman defense.

“The last time we tried matchup with them we found them to be a matchup problem for us,” Brunk said. “We switched to a zone in that game, and it gave them some problems, so we decided to start with it tonight. When they felt comfortable in the zone, then we began to trap. As it turned out, they got their hands on a lot of balls tonight — more than they have all season.”

Besides the turnovers they forced, West just shot 18 of 43 (42%).

“We were making them focus on not turning it over instead of focusing on the rim,” Brunk said.

The Lady Mavericks led 29-22 at halftime but struggled in the third period as the Lady Wolverines (9-17, 1-12) cut the deficit to 36-35 on a basket by Madison Peisert with 1:25 left in the quarter. Southside would finish the quarter clinging to a 38-36 lead.

“I thought we got a little tired in the third,” Brunk said. “We were turning the ball over and West will feast on that.”

It was still a 42-40 game with 3:10 left on a putback by Hallie Ford.

Southside could have taken control of the game earlier in the final period but missing 5 free throws in the quarter kept the game close. The Lady Mavericks finished the game just 13 of 23 from the free-throw line.

Sophia Neihouse, who had been on the bench for most of the game with foul trouble, got a layup with 1:29 left and then made a pair of free throws with 25.2 seconds left to give the Lady Mavericks a 53-45 lead they would not relinquish.

Regan Crusinbery scored 12 to lead West while Peisert added 11.

Southside had built a 19-8 lead early in the second quarter on a three-pointer by Kayla Robinson. West, though, got back into the game on a 12-2 run, seven of which came from Crusinbery.

A pair of three-pointers by Suggs in the final 90 seconds of the half would give the Mavericks a 29-22 halftime advantage.

BOYS BENTONVILLE WEST 59, FORT SMITH SOUTHSIDE 39

The Wolverines (13-21, 7-6 6A-West) used a 12-0 run spanning the second and third quarter to seize the lead and put away the Mavericks (6-18, 2-11).

Southside led 21-17 late in the first half when West started its run on a last-second three-pointer. The Wolverines then scored the first nine points of the third quarter to take the lead a built a 29-21 edge. The lead would be 38-29 after three quarters and would become 20 in the fourth quarter.

Quentyn Thompson scored 17 to lead West while Landon Price added 13. Alex Roper scored 14 points to lead Southside while Cooper Watson added 10.