No sweeps in state finals this week
Monopolies have been outlawed on Championship Weekend in Hot Springs, although rematches and repeat winners are still permitted in the 2020 state high-school basketball finals.
No school has more than one team playing in Bank OZK Arena this week. From 24 teams will come 12 state champions, six per classification, as Hot Springs hosts the gala event for the 13th time in 14 years Thursday through Saturday.
At least seven new champions will be crowned with both Class 6A and 5A winners from last year along with reigning Class 1A girls, 3A boys and 4A girls holders absent. Izard County (1A boys), Melbourne (2A girls), England (2A boys), Mountain View (3A girls) and Magnolia (4A boys) are possible repeaters.
Class 4A could produce two champions with perfect records. The boys’ final is a rematch between
Magnolia and Mills, which lost to the freshman-powered Panthers 78-76 in last year’s title game. Magnolia (26-0) escaped Brookland 63-56 in double overtime Saturday night in Farmington. Mills is 28-3, the Comets winning 15 straight since a 55-52 home loss to Pulaski Academy Jan. 10.
Star City’s Lady Bulldogs (32-0) oppose Farmington (32-3), which has won 18 straight and hosted the early round of the 4A state tournament. Star City overturned a one-point lead in the fourth quarter and downed Pulaski Academy 55-53 in the semfinals Saturday.
The 5A boys final, 1:15 p.m. Saturday, matches two Southeastern Conference signees with Jacksonville (Davonte Davis) against West Memphis (Chris Moore). Davis in November joined a highly regarded Arkansas recruiting class while Moore, after strong pitches from Memphis and Arkansas, signed with Auburn, an NCAA Final Four team last year.
Jacksonville (20-5) nipped defending champion
Marion 54-53 in the state semifinals Saturday in Russellville. West Memphis (26-4) outscored Maumelle in every quarter in the other semifinal, 59-43. (Maumelle beat Lake Hamilton in the first round while Marion handed 5A-South champion Hot Springs a season-ending defeat in the quarterfinals.)
Arkansas signee Elauna Eaton, a 6-foot combination guard, leads Nettleton (27-5) into the 5A girls’ final against Greenwood (25-5), which beat defending champion Little Rock Christian 51-43 in the semifinals. Eaton transferred from Jonesboro High after her sophomore year and led Nettleton to the quarterfinals last year with Christian prevailing 64-60 at Lake Hamilton Wolf Arena.
Class 6A, swept last year by Fort Smith Northside, gets new champions with Bentonville and Fayetteville girls and Conway and Little Rock Central boys in the last two games Saturday.
Bentonville is 27-1, winning 22 straight since a 6733 nonconference road loss to Northside in December.
The Lady Tigers won both 6A-West matchups with Fayetteville, 47-27 at home Feb. 14 after a 55-53 road game Jan. 17.
Fayetteville (23-5), led by Oregon State signee and McDonald’s All-American Sasha Goforth, won 55-53 over Northside in the semifinals Saturday in Bryant. Goforth scored the go-ahead basket on a layup with
11 seconds left and senior guard Coriah Beck (daughter of Corey, starting point guard on Arkansas’ 1994 NCAA championship team) netted a game-high 24 against top-ranked Northside, led by junior national recruit Jersey Wolfenbarger. The Lady Bulldogs avenged a triple-overtime defeat to Northside in last year’s semifinals.
Kirby almost put two teams in the 1A finals, the Lady Trojans (38-5) crushing Alpena 67-33 but the boys (37-4) coming up short against Izard County, 5552, in semifinals at Lake Hamilton Wolf Arena. Kirby has won 17 straight and Viola (39-2) 16 in a row before the noon Thursday tournament opener.