Blackhawks' pair leads charge past West Fork Tigers

WEST FORK -- Pea Ridge continued its winning streak behind a smothering, full-court press to beat West Fork Friday night.

The Blackhawks held the Tigers to just 18 points in the first half in its 68-45 win. On offense, Pea Ridge rode the backs of Matt Thomas and Joey Hall, who combined for 46 points, to a big second half that proved to be a difference maker in the game.

Boys

Pea Ridge 68, West Fork 45

Pea Ridge – 13^18^15^22 – 68

West Fork – 11^7^11^16 – 45

Pea Ridge: Thomas 25, Hall 21, Caudill 8, Wright 4, Mahoney 4, Holtgrewe 2, Johnson 2

West Fork: Treat 14, Burks 8, Poplin 6, Hays 5, Bivens 5, Neyman 3, Ramey 2, Franklin 2

Girls

West Fork 31, Pea Ridge 29

West Fork – 8^7^4^12 – 31

Pea Ridge – 6^3^11^9 – 29

West Fork: Throgmorton 13, Greenlee 8, Griffin 5, Tedford 3, Kutz 2

Pea Ridge: Anthony 10, Dayberry 6, Davis 5, West 3, Fletcher 3, Whatley 2

"Those guys are just complete players," Blackhawk coach Trent Loyd said. "They can handle the ball, they can shoot it and they can go finish around the rim. We play unselfish basketball and try to get everybody open off of each other. It's fun to watch."

West Fork (10-7, 5-5) stayed with the Blackhawks for most of the first quarter, but Pea Ridge jumped into a press for the rest of the game that proved difficult for the Tigers to overcome.

"We wanted to see if we could speed them up a little bit," Loyd said. "We feel like the more possessions we can get, the better for us. In the second half you saw that. We wore them down a little bit.

Leading the charge on defense was forward Britton Caudill. The senior made it almost impossible for West Fork to score inside the paint, even recording a stretch in the third quarter where he blocked a Tigers' shot on four straight possessions.

"Britton did a great job protecting the rim," Loyd said. "We tried to get out and get a little more pressure and he did a good job of contesting without fouling, which led to a some fast-break points for us."

Fouls were an issue tonight on both sides but it was Pea Ridge (15-1, 9-0) that benefited from so many calls. Behind Thomas' game-high 15 attempts, the Blackhawks shot 73 percent from the charity strike on 25-34 shooting.

The Tigers had four players foul out of the game, including leading scorer Jeff Treat, who finished the game with 14 points.

Loyd said the foul slowed the game down for the Blackhawks but liked how it offered them a change of pace, one his team is not used to playing.

"There are going to be games down the stretch that will have a lot of fouls called," Loyd said. "We have to make adjustments a little more and that's kind of my fault. We need to be ready to go when that happens."

Lady Blackhawks

West Fork 31, Pea Ridge 29

West Fork overcame a fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Blackhawks behind two 3-pointers by Shannon Throgmorton.

Throgmorton scored 13 points and Sara Greenlee pitched in eight to lead the Tigers. Pea Ridge used a big second half to take cut the lead behind Jennifer Anthony's team-high 10 points.

Sports on 01/18/2017