Cyclones upend Panthers at home
Siloam Springs’ boys team had a chance to increase its lead in the 5A-West Conference on Friday, but Russellville had other plans.
The Cyclones blitzed the Panthers with full court pressure defense for nearly the whole night, outrebounded the Panthers and stormed back in the second half to take a 47-42 victory inside Panther Activity Center.
“In the halfcourt, their 1-3-1 (defense) gave us fits tonight,” said Siloam Springs coach Tim Stewart. “Give (Russellville) a lot of credit. They made us feel uncomfortable on the offensive end. Then defensively we weren’t able to corral the boards like we’ve been able to do to this point. I don’t know what the totals were but it will not be good. You put that together with an off shooting night and it’s a good formula for Russellville, unfortunately. Hopefully it’s one of those that’s a late season painful loss that kind of snaps everybody back into prime form and we’ll look for the kids to respond really well.”
Despite the loss, the Panthers (17-9, 9-3) remained alone in first place in the 5A-West Conference thanks in part to Van Buren’s 5940 victory over Harrison. The Pointers (17-11, 8-4) and Goblins (18-9, 8-4) sat a game behind Siloam Springs heading into Tuesday’s games, which included Van Buren visiting Siloam Springs. Results were not available at presstime.
The first half against Russellville went all right for the Panthers as they led 10-9 after the first quarter and pulled ahead 15-9 early in the second quarter after a 3-pointer from Nate Hawbaker.
Russellville closed within 15-14 but the Panthers then went on a 9-0 run to build a 10-point lead, 24-14.
Dalton Newman scored on a putback to go up 17-14. Wilson Cunningham and Levi Fox scored baskets to go up 21-14, and with 42.7 seconds left, Nate Vachon hit a 3-pointer and was fouled as the Panthers led 24-14.
Vachon missed the free throw for a chance to complete a fourpoint play and Russellville capitalized on a Siloam Springs turnover to score the last four points and trail 24-18 at halftime.
Russellville’s Donovan Villarreal scored to pull Russellville within 24-20 to open the third quarter.
Siloam Springs responded with a 3-pointer and a putback from Newman to go up 29-20, the Panthers’ largest lead of the second half.
But the Panthers went cold the rest of the quarter as Russellville closed the third on a 10-2 run to pull within 31-30 going into the fourth quarter.
Vachon converted an old fashioned three-point play to open the third quarter and put Siloam Springs up 34-30 with 6:21 left to play. Russellville answered right back with two straight buckets from Caleb Carter to tie the game.
The Cyclones then took the lead for good, 37-34, on a 3-pointer from Dawson Shafer with 4:06 left.
Vachon hit two free throws after Bryce Beavers was hit with a technical foul to bring Siloam Springs within 37-36, but the Panthers couldn’t score on the ensuing possession.
Multiple offensive rebounds on the other end allowed Carter to get fouled with 3:10 left and he sank two free throws to go up 39-36.
Neither team scored until 1:25 left when Spence hit a pair of free throws to get within 39-38.
But on the other end, Luke Stump scored inside to put Russellville up 41-38 and, after a
Panthers miss, the Cyclones went up 43-38 when Carter scored and was fouled.
Carter missed the free throw and Vachon got fouled on the Panthers’ next possession, and he hit both shots to get within 4340 with 31.5 seconds left.
Carter would go on to hit four of six free throws over the final seconds and Spence would add a late bucket for Siloam Springs.
“Tough game, tough game,” said first-year Russellville coach Trent Morgan. “We knew it was going to be tough, because this is a tough place to play. They’re the first place team in the conference and our kids just kept fighting. They did. They kept fighting and clawing. Proud of every one of those guys. We played maybe 11 or 12 guys and everybody fought hard.”
The Cyclones wound up outrebounding the Panthers 35-25 overall, including 19 offensive rebounds.
Carter led Russellville with 12 points,while Shafer and Stump each had nine.
“I know Coach Stewart is a great coach and I’ve got to keep things mixed up, and I think we did a great job of executing the game plan, especially in the second half,” Morgan said.
The Cyclones moved into a tie for fourth place with Greenbrier.
“It gets us a little closer,” Morgan said. “We’re telling our kids to take it one game at a time and we’ll worry about the rest next week.”
The Panthers didn’t appear to have their usual zip and energy they’ve shown in previous games. Part of that may be due to the fact that they had to travel to Greenwood twice on backto-back days to finish one game.
The Panthers were leading Greenwood late in the third quarter on Tuesday when the power failed at H.B. Stewart Arena and the game was not able to be completed that night.
Siloam Springs had to turn around Wednesday and return to Greenwood to finish off a 47-39 victory.
Stewart said the extra trip to Greenwood certainly had an effect on the ability to prep for the Cyclones.
“Absolutely it does, it gets you out of rhythm with a normal scout, a normal day,” he said. “But that’s part of the big picture that hopefully we’re teaching them, how to handle adversity. Hopefully the boys are going to look in the mirror and see what we need to do individually better and then corporately better. … It doesn’t help to drive eight hours on a bus. I’m tired. I know the kids are tired but we’re going to try and be optimists. If that’s what it takes for us to find that next gear for Van Buren and Harrison then that’s what we’re going to try and do.”
Siloam Springs wraps up its regular season at Harrison on Friday.
SILOAM SPRINGS 47, GREENWOOD 39
The Panthers returned to Greenwood on Wednesday afternoon to finish a game suspended from Tuesday night due to a power outage caused by high winds.
Siloam Springs remained in first place in the 5A-West and led after each quarter.
The Panthers led 17-10 after a quarter, 24-21 at the half and 38-31 after three quarters.
Siloam Springs was led by Levi Fox, who scored five of his 17 points after the continuation of the game, which occurred with 2:38 left in the third quarter with the Panthers leading, 34-29.
Nate Vachon added nine points, and Dalton Newman eight.
Greenwood (6-19, 1-10) was led by L.J. Robins, who scored 12 points and doled out six assists. Braden Bollman added nine points, all off 3-pointers.
Siloam Springs trailed just once, at 21-19, late in the second quarter after Robins scored successive baskets for the Bulldogs.
Newman scored inside and Vachon buried a 3-pointer to end the half for Siloam Springs.