Pea Ridge 61, West Fork 27
The Blackhawks used a balanced scoring attack to quickly pull away from the West Fork Tigers Tuesday, Jan. 3, in Blackhawk gym. They led 21-3 at the end of the first quarter and 35-13 at halftime on their way to the 34-point victory.
Boys
Pea Ridge 61, West Fork 27
West Fork^3^10^14^0^—^27
Pea Ridge^21^14^19^7^—^61
Pea Ridge (11-1): Thomas 18, Rose 14, Wright 11, Caudill 7, Hall 7, Holtgrewe 2, Johnson 2
West Fork (10-4): Hays 17, Treat 8, Bivens 2
Girls
West Fork 32, Pea Ridge 25
Pea Ridge^9^7^4^5^—^25
West Fork^7^12^6^7^—^32
Pea Ridge (10-4): Davis 7, Anthony 6, Whatley 6, Landis 2, Socha 2, West 2
West Fork (14-0): Greenlee 12, Griffin 11, Throgmorton 5, Cartwright 2, Wright 2
Blackhawk senior Matt Thomas led three players in double figures with 18 points while junior Kobe Rose hit four 3-pointers on his way to 14 points. Senior Cole Wright added 11, including a pair of 3-pointers.
Senior Dalton Hays led the Tigers with 17 points.
Girls
Pea Ridge 25, West Fork 32
The Lady Blackhawks fell to West Fork's girls, leaving West Fork to remain unbeaten with a 32-25 victory during 3A/4A District 1 action Tuesday, Jan. 3, in Blackhawk Gymnasium.
The Lady Tigers (14-0) used an aggressive man defense to disrupt the Lady Blackhawks' usual offensive weapons as senior shooters Jennifer Anthony and Avery Dayberry combined for just one 3-pointer.
"Defensively, I thought we were outstanding to hold a very good team to 25," said West Fork coach Rodney Selph. "We didn't play as well as we have been, which has a lot to do with their defense, but we were still fortunate to grind it out for the win."
While Pea Ridge (10-4) tried to use pick-and-rolls off of screens to combat West Fork's defense, the Lady Tigers used ball movement, spacing and the inside-outside combination of guard Sara Greenlee andcenter Holly Griffin to break through the Lady Blackhawks' zone defense. The seniors combined for 23 points and keyed a second-quarter run that proved to be the difference as the defense limited Pea Ridge to just nine second half points.
Pea Ridge coach Heath Neal called Selph "a good friend," who's "always very well prepared and knows what I'm going to do," he said. In their first meeting on Nov. 12, Selph guided the Lady Tigers to a 40-35 win.
"We struggled offensively, which was out of character for us," Neal said. "We got some news today that (senior) Maggie Fletcher was out really bad sick and would be out all week, so I think it kind of affected us as a team. She's one of our leaders and it was like we didn't have the extra spark that we usually have.
"I still felt like with how we've been performing and the way we've been screening people that we would do OK, but the pressure got to us, it really did."
Pea Ridge led 9-7 at the end of the first quarter and were up by as many as four points twice, including a 13-9 advantage on No. 3's rebound stick-back with 5 minutes, 29 seconds to go in the half.
But West Fork answered with a 7-0 run on back-to-back rebound putbacks by Griffin and a 3-pointer by Greenlee, who got a shooter's role from the left corner to give the Lady Tigers a 16-13 lead. They would go on to finish the first half with a 10-2 scoring surge thanks to a traditional 3-point play by Griffin on another offensive rebound in the closing seconds.
Sports on 01/11/2017