' Hawks humble Shiloh, payback Gentry

The Blackhawk boys basketball team invaded Shiloh's basketball arena and left with a surprisingly easy 72-49 win last week. After roaring out to a 25-7 lead in the first period, the 'Hawks kept the Shiloh offense well under control until the final few minutes of the contest.

Pea Ridge kept the pedal to the metal until they found themselves with a 66-33 lead early in the fourth period. The large lead kick started the mercy rule, with the clock allowed to run out more quickly, not stopping for breaks in the action. With the game no longer in question, Pea Ridge substituted liberally the rest of the way. Shiloh then had their best showing in the games waning minutes, scoring 16 points to get within to 23 by the final buzzer.

After losing their first conference game to Gentry in the district opener way back on December, Coach Trent Lloyd's boys have been on a tear, not suffering a single loss since that west county upset. The boys from the Ridge got their payback last Friday with a 46-41 defeat of the Pioneers in the first game of the second half of the conference season, their 11th straight victory.

Central to their success this season has been the 'Hawks' tight defense, a facet of their game that has been improving weekly since the season began back in November. Shiloh suffered quite a few turnovers by not allowing for the Blackhawks' quickness to the ball. Pea Ridge is known for their 3-point shooting prowess, but it can make teams' pay if they stretch their defense to cover the arc. Defenses covering the shots from downtown open their middle for attacks to the basket.

Also looming large for Pea Ridge opponents has been the deep bench that Coach Lloyd can utilize. The quality of available players went up another notch with the return of post player Bryce Beckmann who has been rehabbing from an injury. Even more foreboding for the opposition is the fact that Beckmann is the only senior on the 16-man roster.

It looks like Berryville and Gentry will join Pea Ridge and Huntsville as the most likely teams to qualify for regional play this season. With six games left in the conference season, there has opened a two-game gap between the top four teams and the bottom four in district standings. Oddly enough, Pea Ridge is the only one of top four teams in 4A-1 football who are also in the upper echelon for basketball. Prairie Grove, Shiloh and Gravette were all top four football teams but close to the basement in round ball action.

In a kind of "sign of the times" moment, Berryville whipped Shiloh last Friday to sweep their basketball series this season. It was Shiloh's 80-point football game victory over Berryville a few years ago that was accompanied with a kind of arrogant, unsportsmanlike behavior that made the Springdale private school a pariah with other members of the district. That debacle led to a lot of rule changing that seems to have decimated Shiloh's ability to recruit and import star athletes from other schools. What do they say? What goes around comes around?

The Blackhawks have steadily been climbing the MaxPreps/CBS state rankings, moving up to ninth this week. They now hold the third spot in the regional rankings, and they are a surprising 50th in the overall state polls. The overall polls put all teams from the 7A-6A-5A-4A-3A-2A-1A into one list. There are 301 teams ranked in competitive high school boys basketball in the state.

Interstingly enough, the 'Hawks are ranked just ahead of 51st ranked Little Rock Central. Once the biggest school in the state, Central is still large enough to be a 7A team. I assumed their 51st ranking position meant that weren't having all that great a year. I found that wasn't true as they are currently undefeated at 16-0 and are in first place of the 7A East conference.

MaxPreps/CBS assigns power ranking to every team based on the won/loss record, margin of victory, whether it was a home game or away, and the strength of schedule. Another factor is reportage.

MaxPreps/CBS became associated with the Arkansas Activities Association this year. Every team in football, basketball, baseball, softball and several other sports are required to post their rosters on the MaxPreps website. The partnership also requires each school to post their game scores and a team photo.

Some schools have been negligent in posting scores which then potentially throws the MaxPreps/CBS computer programming off. MaxPreps has at their disposal services that can be quite useful for schools, and I believe more and more schools will utilize it as time goes by. The MaxPrep website has windows to post photos, videos and stats of players from every team.

And for the record -- the Blackhawks can now boast of being ranked the 2,574th best team in the whole United States. That's not too bad considering there are 18,150 teams in America.

No word yet on our world ranking.

Coach Loyd has some catching up to do

Local head high school basketball coach Trent Loyd has 17 victories under his belt this season, four more than the head coach at Van Buren. That head coach happens to be Randy Lloyd, Trent's father.

Last week Van Buren's Coach Lloyd celebrated his 700th win as a head basketball coach. Our coach Lloyd has cut into his dad's lead by four so far this season, but it might just be awhile before he can match the overall record.

Standings and rankings

4A-1 District standings

1. Pea Ridge 7-1

Huntsville 7-1

3. Gentry 5-3

Berryville 5-3

5. Shiloh 3-5

Gravette 3-5

7. Prairie Grove 1-7

Lincoln 1-7

4A North Region poll

1. Baptist Prep

2. Huntsville

3. Pea Ridge

4. Ozark

5. Pottsville

6. Dover

7. Dardanelle

8. Gentry

9. Berryville

10. Gravette

State 4A MaxPreps/ CBS poll

1. Monticello

2. Malvern

3. Baptist Prep

4. Jonesboro Westside

5. Riverview

6. Dumas

7. Huntsville

8. West Helena

9. Pea Ridge

10. Ozark

17. Gentry

24. Berryville

26. Gravette

35. Shiloh

37. Lincoln

43. Prairie Grove

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Editor's note: John McGee is an award-winning columnist and sports writer. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].

Sports on 01/27/2016