Parkview rolls early in rout of GCT
Little Rock Parkview held Greene County Tech to only 16 points in the second half in an 80-38 rout of the Golden Eagles Monday afternoon in the first round of the Class 5A state basketball tournament at Trojan Arena.
Parkview head coach Scotty Thurman noted after the game that he was pleased with the outcome, but he wants to see a better offensive performance.
“I feel pretty good,” he said. “I mean, obvously it’s the first game, you want to come out and try to establish yourself and try to get a rhythm. I thought we did that defensively. And that’s been our focal point all year is being a better defensive team each and every night, and that way if you don’t shoot it well, we should still play well. So we shot it pretty good today, not as good as we’re capable of, but we defended fairly well when you think about we only gave up 38 points.”
After stretching an 18-13 first quarter lead to 47-22 at the break, the No. 1 seed Patriots (13-3) kept rolling with senior Keylon Harris draining a 3-pointer from the left wing before a steal and pass to junior Cameron Wallace for the two-handed dunk in transition.
Kyler Morris answered with a pull-up trey for the 4-seeded Golden Eagles (15-10) with under three minutes off the clock before back-to-back steals by Parkview senior Coran Littrell led to scores from Jaylen Miller and sophomore Nate Coley. Following a trey by freshman Dallas Thomas, the Patriots were up 59-26 midway through.
Thomas hit again in the paint while the Golden Eagles’ Tyler Vincent hit a jumper at the buzzer to trail 63-33 heading to the
final frame.
Parkview began the final eight minutes on a 13-0 run led off by a transition layup from Coley. Senior Jayke Bolen got Greene County Tech back on the board with 2:15 to go, sinking a pair of free throws.
Junior Christian Walls scored the final points for the Golden Eagles moments later with a trey before Parkview sophomore Carson Backus answered with an opposite-side layup, and Thomas sank a free throw to set the final.
Thurman said the key to being successful in the rest of the tournament stems off defense.
“We’ve got to be able to play better defense every night no matter who we play against,” he said. “Rebounding the basketball, and then ultimately, our Achilles’ heel is at times has been the free throw line. We’ve got to be able to make free throws.”
Greene County assistant coach Chase Holbrook, filling in for head coach Jeff Guiot who was out due to COVID-19, said it is tough to win after a good team takes that strong a lead.
“I mean, just them turning us over, us giving them extra possessions, and then — they’re so talented you just can’t give them extra possessions like that,” he said. “And we didn’t necessarily shoot the ball well after the first quarter.”
Parkview got on the board first with Coley rebounding and passing ahead to Wallace for a quick layup to lead a 9-0 spurt capped by Litttrell hitting junior Jeff Kamanga for the fast break layup prompting Greene County Tech to call timeout.
Sophomore guard Benji Goodman got the Golden Eagles on the board for the first time with a 3-pointer before Kamanga answered again with a putback. Junior
Jared Noel shot back with a feed to Vincent for a jumper as Goodman and Noel drained a pair of treys to cut the lead to 14-11 with 1:20 remaining.
Thomas hit a 3-pointer from the left wing in the closing seconds as Harris tacked another point from the line to give Parkview a 5-point edge going into the second period.
The Patriots began to run away in the second with Littrell rebounding and going the distance for the bucket followed with a free throw by Kamanga. Littrell followed up with a steal and layup and then another steal and assist to Coley for the scoring honors to put the Patriots up 25-13 with just 1:55 off the clock.
Miller capped the 12-0 run with a transition 3-pointer before Morris drained back-to-back treys for the Golden Eagles. Wallace then went on a 9-point run, leading off with a fast-break dunk and then converting a 3-point play.
Noel answered for Greene County Tech with a trey in the final minute before Shelton responded with a trey and Thomas grabbed a steal for a dunk in the closing seconds of the half.
Junior Cameron Wallace led Little Rock Parkview with 22 points, four rebounds, two steals and an assist followed by senior Coran Littrell with 16 points, five rebounds, three assists and six steals, and freshman Dallas Thomas had 11 points, three boards and a pair of steals.
Greene County Tech was led by sophomore Benji Goodman with 14 points, four rebounds and three assists while junior Jared Noel added 12 points, three boards and an assist.
The Patriots will play their second-round game Friday at 1 p.m. They will face the winner of Wednesday’s game between Lake Hamilton (15-8) and Vilonia (17-6).