From Staff Reports
The 3-point shots the Blackhawks used to build a halftime lead Saturday deserted the Blackhawks for most of the second half Saturday.
Battle of the Ridge championship
Riverview 51, Pea Ridge 46
Riverview^10^11^20^10^—^51
Pea Ridge^17^8^9^12^—^46
Riverview (10-1): Lee 12, C. Smith 12, J.T. Smith 12, Neal 11, Langley 2, Sandoval 2.
Pea Ridge (6-2): Hall 13, Church 12, Caudill 7, Wright 7, Rose 5, Winn 2.
Pea Ridge managed to hit only one shot beyond the arc in the final 16 minutes and had a late comeback attempt fall short as Riverview took the inaugural Battle at the Ridge title with a 51-46 victory.
The Blackhawks (6-2) used 3-pointers and free throws to take a 25-21 halftime lead, but their only second-half basket from beyond the arc came from Joey Hall with 1 minute, 28 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Riverview (10-1) was already in control at that time, using a 20-4 run to take a 41-29 cushion before Hall's 3-pointer.
"That third quarter was like a snowball going downhill, and we just couldn't stop it," Pea Ridge coach Trent Loyd said. "It was one of those things where they got a little momentum going, and we backed off a little bit and turned the ball over to them.
"We learned a lot about ourselves this weekend. We're having a top-five team in Class 4A in Riverview, and we've shown we can compete at that level. We're still a work in progress. We've had our full group for seven days, and we're not at our best right now. But who is this early in the year?"
Alex Langley's layup with 5:43 remaining gave the Raiders their biggest lead, 47-34, before Pea Ridge staged its comeback attempt. The Blackhawks put together a 12-2 run and closed the gap to 49-46 on Cole Wright's bucket with 1:46 remaining, then had a chance to get closer after they forced a Raiders turnover with just under a minute to play.
Any chance of completing the comeback ended when Pea Ridge threw the ball away with 24 seconds remaining. Deshawn Lee then hit two free throws with 15 seconds left to secure Riverview's win.
"We kept giving them and-ones there in the fourth quarter," Riverview coach T.J. Coleman said. "We've been in a lot of close games this year already, and we've played in three conference games. These kids know how to handle adversity, so I didn't call timeout. I just let them play because we had been in these situations before."
Lee joined Charles Smith and J.T. Smith with 12 points apiece to share Riverview's high-point honors, while Easton Rice added 11. Hall finished with 13 points to lead Pea Ridge, followed by Westin Church with 12.
Sports on 12/16/2015