Two Blackhawks down, hope floats
Coach Trent Loyd has his work cut out for him coming into the District 4A-1 boy basketball tournament at Gravette this week.
A month ago Pea Ridge was flying high following a 55-44 road win at Prairie Grove on Jan. 9, with Loyd excited about the team’s potential, sporting a 17-3 overall record as the conference season neared its midway point.
At the time, Loyd noted the record was good while acknowledging he envisioned a ton of growth for the team with a lot of areas where the Blackhawks needed to get better.
Key Losses To Injuries
Fast-forward to recent weeks.
With two Blackhawks down in a freakish twist of circumstances, the once highly-touted Pea Ridge squad, which posted a 10game winning streak from Dec. 22 to Jan. 23, must utilize U.S. Marine Corps philosophy to “improvise, adapt and overcome.”
Pea Ridge lost senior captain Ben Wheeler, a skilled 6-feet-6 player, who sustained two broken wrists, and senior guard Landon Ayala, a key reserve to a broken wrist, depriving the lineup of two its top seven players.
Wheeler was going for a dunk against Farmington when he got bodied up, lost his balance and fell on Jan. 26.
“Both hands naturally extended to protect himself and he broke both wrists at the same time,” Loyd said. “He was a factor in our 1-2-2 press, creating havoc with his length. He was averaging 12 to 13 rebounds per game. Now there’s got to be more gang rebounding. He was also a really good shooter, who really stretched the floor.”
Landon Ayala went down in a 64-51 win at Gravette on Jan. 30. Jacob Ogburn, a 5-7 junior, is now coming off the bench in his place.
“We are trying to figure it all out together again,” Loyd said.
Fortunately, for the Blackhawks the roster went about 9-to-10 players deep before the injuries.
Good news for the Blackhawks can be found through interpreting 1 Samuel 14:6 (KJV), “And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised: it may be that the Lord will work for us: for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few,” through a basketball perspective.
What that means in basketball terms — tightening up the roster to a 7-or-8 player rotation doesn’t diminish the team’s potential — whether one guy’s hot or there’s four players in double figures the offense can flow — and winning by a large margin or one is possible when players put faith in this principle, follow the instructions of their coaches and carry out their individual assignments.
“We’ll take it by one, just as much as 30. This time of year it’s win and advance,” Loyd said.
Adjusting Player Rotation
According to an article titled “Improvise, Adapt, Overcome, then Adapt Again,” posted online by Lance Cpl. Ryan Ramsammy, of the 2nd Marine Division, on Aug. 8, 2023, ” Those three words are paramount to fighting and winning battles.”
Lance Cpl. Ramsammy then asks, “But what happens when you finally overcome?” or, in the case of the Blackhawks, secure a 60-58 road win at Huntsville on Tuesday, Feb. 6, and hold off Prairie Grove, 46-44, at home in Blackhawk Arena in the regular season finale on Friday.
Lance Cpl. Ramsammy suggests, “You keep improvising and you keep adapting.”
Every other team in the district tournament won’t rest and neither can the Blackhawks afford to.
Bentonville transfer, Anthoni Ayala, a 6-3 sophomore and younger brother of Landon Ayala, whom Loyd describes as providing “a good spark with a great work ethic, unselfish and a great passer,” led the team in scoring with 23 points against Prairie Grove Friday.
“He’s averaging about 20 the last two weeks. He’s played great, really stepping out and carrying us,” Loyd said.
Classmate Skye Davenport scored 28 points against Prairie Grove on Jan. 9. He complemented Ayala with 10 points in Friday’s downto-the-wire, 46-44, win, and hit “some threes we had to have” Loyd said, helping the Blackhawks overcome an 8-point deficit early in the fourth quarter at Huntsville.
With Wheeler out, these two might have to carry the team at times, but need their teammates to step up and contribute to keep defenses honest.
Loyd’s witnessed that first hand at Huntsville with Zion Whitmore and Luke Baker contributing, “whether it’s been threes or putbacks,” and Clayton Boyd knocking down a crucial trifecta.
Righting Individual Mindsets
Pea Ridge will host the 4A North Regional basketball tournament next week at Blackhawk Arena. The Blackhawks have a bye into the regional, but don’t want to settle for that and back their way in.
“We definitely want to be a one or two seed from our district. We really want to go into regional playing good basketball,” Loyd said. “We’ve got to flip a switch and find what that looks like now for us.”
There’s endeavoring to get each player on the roster to subscribe to the Marine mindset Ronald Reagan referred to when he said, “Some people wonder all their lives if they’ve made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem.”
“We are still finding ways to get it done right now. We’re not as dominant offensively when we had our full team,” Loyd said. “I really think 3-to-4 days of straight practicing will really do us good.”
Instead of focusing on the absence of key players, the Blackhawks may be looking at a golden opportunity to demonstrate the spirit of resilience Americans are renowned for.
By choosing not to dwell on adversity, they can band together to create as many challenges for opponents to solve facing their new lineup as possible. Ideally, coaches want teams to come out playing their best basketball of the season once the post season begins, and believe they’re capable of more than perhaps they even dare imagine in the heat of the moment when games are on the line.
The community can help, too, by showing up in the stands and supporting the Blackhawks.
“It’s tough not to be full steam ahead with a full roster, but Friday night we had a great student section and lots of support,” Loyd said. “We’ve got to figure out our identity without Ben and without Landon.”
By virtue of its 12-2 conference record, Pea Ridge has a bye and won’t play in the district tournament until Friday’s late semifinal scheduled for 8 p.m. at Gravette’s Lion Arena.