Mills Uses Pressure To Top Farmington At Class 4A

MORRILTON — Mills wasn’t sure what to expect from Farmington on Friday afternoon, so the Comets stuck with what they do best to move on during the Class 4A boys state tournament.

The reigning Class 4A co- champions pressured the Cardinals early and often while running away for a 66-50 victory in the quarterfinals at Devil Dog Arena.

Junior guard Javion Guy-King finished with 21 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists, and senior forward Jakari Livingston had 10 points and 6 steals for the Comets (24-4).

M i l ls ’ i n - yo u r - face defense didn’t lead to a rash of turnovers from Farmington (23-6), but the pressure did force the Cardinals into expending a great deal of energy on offense just to get looks, which often were contested.

“We wanted to make things tough on them, make sure they didn’t get many open shots,” Mills Coach Raymond Cooper said. “I knew Farmington was going to be a tough out because Coach [ Johnny] Taylor is a great coach. He does a lot of really unconventional stuff … things that you won’t see all year. You can’t really prepare for any of it because you never know what he’s going to do.

“They had some really good things going against our press break. But we wanted to just make sure we challenged their shots and not give them anything easy.”

Nothing came easy for the Cardinals, who got a valiant effort from guard Layne Taylor to stick around as long as they could. The freshman scored a game- high 29 points while trying to navigate through Mills’ hounding defense. He knocked down six three- pointers, many of which came 4 or 5 feet beyond the arc.

Tha t ’s how far the Comets forced him to shoot on occasion because they cut off most of the driving lanes that were accessible to him during Farmington’s first- round victory over Camden Fairview.

“He’s really a tough player, man,” Cooper said of Layne Taylor. “To be a freshman, he’s got a lot of savvy and plays with so much poise. We sent a lot of pressure at him, but he never cracked, never broke. He still found ways to make shots despite everything we threw at him.”

Farmington was down just 27-26 after two quarters before the Comets overwhelmed the Cardinals in the third quarter.

Mills hit six of eight shots and held the Cardinals to 0-of-9 shooting. All of that resulted in a 17- 3 scoring advantage for the Comets and a 44-29 lead after three quarters. Mills’ advantage ballooned to 22 points in the fourth.

“At halftime, we talked about [ Mills] hitting only one three in the first half,” Farmington Coach Johnny Taylor said. “So we were going to come out and try to play a little tighter in that third, and they came out and hit their first three three-pointers. They’re one of the toughest teams in the state, and they showed it [Friday].

“But I’m proud of my guys. The effort that we put in just to get here was a big deal. It’s been 10 years since we’ve played in a state tournament. These were a part of a district championship, a conference championship and a regional final. So they had a great year.”