PEA RIDGE — The boys basketball ’Hawks have again drawn the top seed in the annual Southwest Holiday Classic Basketball Tournament which begins Tuesday in Washburn, Mo.
Having won the past two years, forecasters see more of the same for Pea Ridge as it brings a solid 10-3 record into the competition with all three losses coming at the hands of large classification schools. This years’ Holiday hoopfest will be featuring 10 teams, all of which have enrollments that are not a lot different from Pea Ridge High.
The top four seeds after our ’Hawks are No. 2 Purdy (6-2), No. 3 Billings (6-0), No. 4 Pierce City (6-1) and No. 5 Cassville (2-0). Purdy High School, while a bit smaller than Pea Ridge, has a rich tradtion of competitive basketball and never seems to have a bad year. Billings, a small community just west of Springfield, has been up and down over the years but has an undefeated team so far into this season. The Pierce City Eagles, the only team that has denied the ’Hawks the championship over the past five tournaments, has a good 6-1 mark this campaign with the Cassville Wildcats just coming off a successful football season where they lost byjust two points in the state semifinals. Cassville had previously won the last two state football titles. Their football prowess has led to their getting late starts to their basketball seasons.
The ’Hawks will play at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday versus the winner of Monday’s game between No. 8 seed Wheaton and No. 9 seed Exeter. This game will more than likely see the No. 1 seed ’Hawks and the No. 8 seed Wheaton Bulldogs tip it off in the quarterfinals. It’s a game that might look like a breather before they take on the winner of the Cassville/Pierce City battle on Wednesday. However, the events of last Friday may belie the lowly No. 8 seed given the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs played Purdy, the No. 2 seed, in a conference game on the 17th with Wheaton dominating the Eagles to the tune of a 65-51 whipping.
With the Bulldogs losing to No. 4 seed Pierce City by a mere basket two weeks ago, teams not taking Wheaton seriously could up on thelosing end of things.
In other first round games, No. 7 East Newton plays No. 10 seed Hollister on Monday with the winner to play No. 2 Purdy at 6 p.m. Tuesday, immediately following the ’Hawks. On Tuesday, No. 4 Pierce City plays No. 5 Cassville at 7:30 p.m. with Tuesday’s last game featuring No. 3 Billings up against the host school Southwest at 9 p.m.
The championship semifinal rounds will be at 7:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Wednesday with the third place game set for Thursday at 7:30p.m. followed by the championship game at 9 p.m.
Personally, I plan to attend the Southwest Classic as it usually turns out to be one of the more entertaining ones that fans could attend. The average attendance of this tournament always tops anything that high school basketball tournaments at Rogers or Bentonville usually draw. Besides just having the numbers, most of the people there come to support their team - loudly!
Last year’s final was a nail biter like a lot of them are.
The ’Hawks got up earlyand managed to build a 20-point lead late in the fourth quarter. With little over two minutes to go, rather than send in the subs and concede defeat, the Trojan coach told his boys to shoot fast and from behind the arc in one last chance effort to catch the ’Hawks. To the local fans’ delight and to the dismay of the Pea Ridge faithful, Southwest tossed in seven 3-pointers while the ’Hawks missed their shots and rebounds, and suffered potentially disastrous turnovers. Kasey Cooper’s theft of a Trojan pass in the game’s final seconds preserved the ’Hawks’ ultimate victory, however, if not Coach Clark’s nerves.
It was the Southwest game last year where a lot of Trojan fans asked me who that “big fella” was, referring, of course, to power forward Cameron Thompson. A lot of the pre-tournament hype talked about the seniors on last year’s ’Hawk team and Thompson was flying under the radar - then. That won’t be the case this season as he will probably draw a lot of attention as will the ’Hawks’ other senior starter Kasey Cooper.
Everyone should come to the game for some small town fun and entertainment. Where else could you go to see so many older fans, camouflage gear and cowboy hats at a high school sporting event? I am also fairly certain it will be the only tournament you can attend this year that holds out the chance for fans to win free underwear.
Fan had no doubt
As I was prevented from attending last week’s Pea Ridge/Heritage game due to family obligations, I got a chance to talk with some “eye witnesses” about the end of the game.
With the game ticking down to the last few seconds, the War Eagles fouled the youngest player on the floor in their hopes of making their 1-point lead stand up.
With less than a second left, sophomore Jacob Hall sank the first pressure-packed free throw to tie the game, then sank the second to give the ’Hawks the victory.
The eye witness I talked to said she had no doubts whatsoever that the young forward would make both shots to win the game. Of course the fan, Ronda Hall, knew the player better than most, being his mom and all.
And like his dad, Kevin, said: “This will be something that you’ll never forget.”
Back in 1967, I was playing eighth-grade ball for Monett in the finals of an Aurora tournament. We were trailing hated Mt. Vernon by a point in the final seconds when my teammate, Kenny Gunter, stole a dribble from a Mt. Vernon guard and drove the length of the court only to be fouled at the final buzzer. He faced the same situation as youngHall did last week. Like Jacob, Kenny made both shots and we won.
Fast forward to the 30th class reunion in 2001, we were discussing our old sports days. That game in Aurora was brought up with Kenny’s free throw shooting heroics being remembered like it wasn’t so long ago.
Lots of folks dream of having that home run in the bottom of the ninth, or maybe the winning touchdown as time expires, but few of us ever get to have the experience. While that kind of thing probably happens in basketball more often than in other sports due to the nature of the game, it’s still rare - and always memorable.
◊◊◊
Editor’s note: John McGee is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The TIMES. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].
The opinions of the writer are his own, and are not necessarily those of The TIMES.
Sports, Pages 7 on 12/22/2010