PEA RIDGE — Coach Charley Clarke’s Blackhawk cagers are in Siloam Springs this week hoping to take down the Benton County Tournament title and bring to this side of the county.
Hartford played Gravette this past Monday with the boys set to play the winner tomorrow night at 5:30 p.m.
in Siloam Springs. The girls played last Monday against Hartford and lost. They will play Saturday against the loser of Decatur/Gravette.
The boys sport a 2-1 record with the lone blemish a narrow loss to 7A school Rogers. They are in factthe number one seed this year in the annual hoopfest. They have finished second the past two years, each time losing to the Siloam Springs Panthers and this year looks to have the same finals rematch.
The boys championship game will tip off 4:30 p.m.
in Siloam Springs this Saturday.
The junior boys played Bentonville Black last night with the girls also playing last night although facing Bentonville Gold. Bentonville’ s junior teams are all ninth grade units with both teams attending the same school.
The junior girls will play tonight at 7:30 p.m. if they lost last night, taking on the loser of Rogers/Rogers Heritage. If the boys lost last night, they play the loser of Bentonville Gold/ Gravette tonight at 7:45 p.m. If the girls won last night, they play tonight at 6:30 p.m. with the boys playingat 5:15 p.m. Thursday if they started with a victory.
Lamar is finally out
Lamar’ s court ordered trip to the 3A state football playoffs ended last Friday after they were shellacked by Fountain Lake 51-21.
There has been no word yet if the judge from Russellville would rule to overturn Fountain Lake’ s victory on the basis of its being unfair to Lamar. The only thing keeping Lamar from the next round is this silly old rule that the team with the most points is always considered the winner of said game.
Because of Lamar’ s earlier litigation, the state 3A final is still three weeks away.
Playoffs continue
Shiloh took a major step to another state title as it got by Nashville 51-49 in the state quarterfinals. Those two teams are the best two teams in 4A in Arkansas and should have met in the state finals. Perhaps it is time to consider seeding the state playoffs like a regular tournament. Missouri’ s playoffs have conference teams playing others in their own part of the state until the grandfinale, thus avoiding much travel until the end. Arkansas teams travel all over the land from the get go with teams crisscrossing the state every Friday night. Seeding the teams on merit would make for a better playoff.
This week, Shiloh meets Bald Knob, the winner of their own district. The semifinal game will be held at Shiloh’ s field. The other semi features a third place finisher in Lonoke facing another district champion in the speedy boys from Osceola. Osceola will be a good match for Shiloh. Size versus speed.
Sports, Pages 9 on 12/02/2009