History made at Blackhawk gym with win over No. 1-ranked team
The CBS/MaxPreps Arkansas 4A undefeated and top-ranked Berryville Lady Bobcats brought their 20-0 record to the Blackhawk gymnasium last week. In a game that was controlled by the Bobcats until the third quarter, the home Lady Blackhawks held the visitors to just 2 points in the third quarter leading to a narrow 46-43 upset victory.
The huge win was the first time in history that a Blackhawk sports team defeated a No. 1-ranked team, thus adding another noteworthy event to the Pea Ridge athletic successes of the past few years.
The result of the win was to create a logjam of four teams at the top of the 4A-1 district all having 5-1 league records. Berryville and Harrison are tied for the lead of the East Division with Pea Ridge and Farmington leading the West.
Tuesday night, the ’Hawks were to travel to Harrison for an important league battle, and on Tuesday, Jan. 29, the locals will host Farmington with those two games going a long way to set the seedings for the district tournament to be held in Harrison.
On the boys side of things, the ’Hawks (6-1) are a half game behind West Division leader Farmington (6-0), with the East Division leader Huntsville at 6-0. The ’Hawks were scheduled to play Harrison Tuesday night with both teams having one loss each in conference play.
Next week, the Blackhawks will host Farmington in a very big contest with the winner likely assuming the lead of the West Division. The next big game will be the road trip to Huntsville, the other divisional leader.
Both boys and girls teams have a rugged road ahead to gain a high seed for the district playoffs. The girls district will be the toughest one in the state with four of the top eight teams in the state in the state. The regional will be an almost replay of the district meet for the girls with only one 4A-4 team (Clarksville) ranked in the Top 10.
Season mid-point Statistics, Standings and Rankings
The conference season is just past the mid-point so I ran the numbers available so far concerning each teams’ offensive output, defensive prowess and the margins of wins/losses averages.
The Blackhawk boys have the largest differential between their offense and their defense, averaging 26 points more per game than their opponents’ score (66-40). The Lady ’Hawks are leading the league in offensive output with the boys leading the district in defense.
Gravette’s boys lead the league in scoring but their defense allows more points than they score. As is usually the case, a team’s defense is a greater indicator of how big a playoff threat they are than the amount of points they can score.
A really good team’s defense often depresses the amount they can score themselves by forcing the opposing offense to spend a lot of time trying to get into scoring position. The past few Blackhawk games saw the opposition spend more than a minute on a single possession trying to get off a shot.
State paper rates Blackhawks highly
The Arkansas DemocratGazette now ranks both Blackhawk basketball teams in the top four in their 4A State Poll.
Both teams are up a notch from last week with the teams’ wins over Berryville Friday. Batesville leads the girls’ poll with Little Rock Mills the top pick in the boys’ poll.
The Democrat-Gazette poll is voted on by staff writers whose opinions often vary from the MaxPreps/CBS poll which relies on computer technology to come up with polling power numbers.
Polls are usually an insight into what teams may have the best shot at doing well in the playoffs. Being how it is high school sports, nothing is ever set in stone and upsets often happen. Polls won’t advance a team anywhere, but it is something fans often enjoy reading.
Democrat-Gazette 4A Girls Super Six
1. Batesville
2. DeQueen
3. Berryville
4. Pea Ridge
5. Farmington
6. Pottsville
Democrat-Gazette 4A Boys Super Six
1. Little Rock Mills
2. Pea Ridge
3. Jonesboro Westside
4. Blytheville
5. Magnolia
6. Farmington
4A-1 District stats Girls offense
1. Pea Ridge
2. Gravette
3. Farmington
4. Berryville
5. Harrison
6. Gentry
7. Prairie Grove
8. Huntsville
9. Shiloh Boys offense
1. Gravette
2. Harrison
3. Pea Ridge
4. Huntsville
5. Gentry 16-4 17-4 15-3 12-4 12-3 15-6 60 ppg 59 ppg 54 ppg 52.2 ppg 52 ppg 43 ppg 37 ppg 35 ppg 28 ppg
71 ppg 69 ppg 66 ppg 64 ppg 58 ppg
6. Farmington
7. Berryville
8. Shiloh
9. Prairie Grove Girls defense
1. Berryville
2. Harrison
3. Huntsville
4. Pea Ridge
5. Farmington
6. Shiloh
7. Gravette
8. Prairie Grove
9. Gentry
Boys defense
1. Pea Ridge
2. Farmington
3. Prairie Grove
4. Harrison
5. Shiloh
6. Berryville
7. Huntsville
8. Gravette
9. Gentry
Point differential Girls
Berryville Pea Ridge Harrison Farmington Gravette Huntsville Gentry Shiloh Prairie Grove 56 ppg 52 ppg 46 ppg 45 ppg
30 ppg 37 ppg 38 ppg 43 ppg 44 ppg 48 ppg 57 ppg 61 ppg 62 ppg +22 ppg +17 ppg +15 ppg +10 ppg +1 ppg -3 ppg -19 ppg -20 ppg -24 ppg