Dakota Woodward went scoreless through the first half of a recent basketball game against Gentry, and he wasn’t the least bit concerned about it.
The senior might be the Blackhawks’ leading scorer this season, but he’s also their point guard. He knows his main duty is to distribute the ball to his teammates and get them into the flow of the game, and his points will come later.
“I score when I’m open and when I need to,” he said after Pea Ridge rolled to a 67-35 victory over Gentry on Jan. 2. “I wouldn’t say I’m content with passing, but I’ll pass to the open man.
“I won’t take a bad shot. I like to get a good shot and shoot when I’m open.”
Pea Ridge coach Charley Clark couldn’t have asked for a better team captain than Woodward this season. The Blackhawks (7-9) have three — sometimes four — new starters around their point guard, and their non-conference schedule has included four 7A-West Conference teams — Rogers Heritage, Rogers High, Bentonville and Springdale Har-Ber.
Clark understands that, with younger players, confidence becomes a big factor in how well they play. There needs to be a person that can help boost their confidence and keep it up, and Woodward has been that person.
“He’s a special kid, and he works really hard all the time,” Clark said. “When you have a senior, your point guard, your team leader, and he’s the hardest working guy out there, it teaches everybody else to say, ‘Hey, we have to get after it out here.’
“That’s something Woody has done the past two years. He practices incredibly hard and obviously plays very hard as well. I think having somebody like him in our program is a huge benefit for us.”
Woodward wound up with a team-high 15 points in the Gentry game, and he ended the third quarter with a steal and a 16-foot jumper to beat the buzzer. His night was capped by a 3-point play following another steal, and two more free throws following a technical foul.
He blistered the nets with eight 3-pointers and scored a career-high 29 points in a Dec. 21 non-conference game at Bentonville. He leads the Blackhawks in scoring at 18 points per game, but that’s not his main concern.
“I just like to get a good ‘W,’” he said. “I don’t like to think about myself too much. I’m a team player, and that’s how I like to play ball. As long as I get the win, then I’m content. If I’m shooting well and passing the ball well, then that’s a bonus.”
There are some things that are mandatory for a point guard in Clark’s style of play. That player must provide defensive pressure on an opposing player for the entire length of the court, and he must bring the ball up the court as fast as possible.
Clark admits there are times when he has to tell Woodward to be a little selfish and shoot the ball. Those times, however, don’t come very often.
“He accepts coaching, and I just have to tell him once,” Clark said. “He’s always looking for ways to make himself better, knowing that it will make the team better in the long run.”