Pea Ridge's offensive machine was full throttle in the 1st and 3rd quarters to turn back a determined Gentry squad 71-59 to sweep the two games series with the Pioneers this season.
Gentry's Cole Cripps scored the game's first bucket but the 'Hawks Kobe Rose demonstrated why the 'Hawks 3-point attack is so feared as he ripped a pair of shots from the corner to give a 6-2 lead less than 2 minutes into the game. After that first shot, the Pioneers would never lead again.
Boys
Pea Ridge 71, Gentry 59
Pea Ridge^22^13^24^12^—^71
Gentry^8^19^18^14^—^59
Pea Ridge (17-1): Hall 19, Thomas 17, Rose 11, Wright 10, Church 7, Caudill 4, Holtgrewe 3
Gentry (7-7): Morris 15, Cripps 13, Folker 13, Hammond 10, Martin 6, Faulkenberry 2
Girls
Pea Ridge 41, Gentry 33
Pea Ridge^10^7^11^13^—^41
Gentry^6^6^15^6^—^33
Pea Ridge (11-7): Anthony 18, Whatley 8, Davis 5, Dayberry 4, Fletcher 4, Socha 2
Gentry (9-7): Boss 18, Hays 7, Fuamatu 5, Hosteter 3
Cole Wright made it 8-2 with an acrobatic layup on the next score. After Gentry's Faulkenberry made a pair of free throws, Joey Hall canned a layup and the free throw on the subsequent foul, then Matt Thomas dropped in a pair of free tosses to put the 'Hawks up 13-4.
Cripps melted the 'Hawk lead a little with a trey, but Wright made a fantastic pass to Britton Caudill who then scored in the paint, and a few seconds later, Westin Church made his own crowd pleasing pass to set Caudill up for another score. Morris scored a free throw for Gentry, but Church fired in a trey with Wright scoring from underneath for a 22-8 lead at the buzzer.
Gentry decided to press the arc hard on defense to prevent long distance scoring and some steals helped them make a mild comeback, shaving 6 points off the 'Hawk lead by the break. The Pioneers extended defense didn't stop the 'Hawks as they drove for five layups with Hall scoring twice, and Rose, Thomas, and Church adding one. Rose finally got a look at a shot behind the arc with 2 minutes left and the junior sharpshooter nailed it.
Gentry went to the 3-point line themselves to get back into the game, sinking three of them. Hammond made two of them for Gentry with Morris making the other. After Pea Ridge had moved out to a 35-23 lead with about one minute in the half, Hammond and Morris made scores sandwiched around a Pea Ridge turnover as they cut the deficit to just 8 at the half, trailing 35-27.
Both teams had their best offensive quarter of the night with the teams combining for 42 points. Unfortunately for the visitors, 24 was the 'Hawks' portion. The teams scored on 11 straight possessions, with Gentry answering every bucket by the 'Hawks to keep the 'Hawk lead at 8 at the mid-point in the third quarter. Matt Thomas racked up a pair of layups with Hall scoring a layup and two free throws, keeping the Pioneers at bay with the score at 43-35.
Wright's two free throws with 4:02 left were offset by a Faulkenberry 3-pointer to get the visitors to within 7, drawing a loud cheer from their supporters. Their cheers were soon quieted when Caudill delivered a marvelous alley-oop pass to Thomas with a 'Hawk steal and a Hall layup moments later shot the lead back to 11 at 49-38.
Gentry's Martin sank a trey for the next score but it was soon negated by Halls' high arching bomb moments later to restore the lead. Gentry then had another mini-rally with Morris canning a jumper with Cripps adding two free shots to melt the lead back down to 7 at 52-45. The Pioneers would not score again and when Thomas exploded for 7 points in the final 80 seconds of the period, the 'Hawks had their biggest lead of the night, 14, with a 59-45 tally.
The Pioneers would just not go away with Martin hitting again from behind the arc to bring the lead down to 59-48. Pea Ridge would then outscore the Pioneers 11 to 4 over the next five minutes to ice the contest. Wright scored twice in the rally with Hall, Hayden Holtgrewe and Church coming up with field goals with Hall's free throw rounding out the rally. Cripps and Morris free throws were all the offense the Pioneers could muster in that fateful stretch of time.
Hall scored a free throw in the games last minute and a half, but Gentry's Folker dropped in two desperation 3-pointers and when Morris scored the final point with 14 seconds left, the 'Hawks had earned a 71-59 victory.
Hall led all scorers with 19 points, followed closely by Thomas with 17. Rose had 11, with Wright getting 10, Church 7, Caudill 4, and Holtgrewe 3.
Lady Blackhawks 41, Lady Pioneers 33
Senior Lady Blackhawk Jennifer Anthony did a little bit of everything to lift Pea Ridge past Gentry 41-33 Tuesday, Jan. 17, in Blackhawk Gym.
After losing four of its last five, including two to unbeaten West Fork, the Lady Blackhawks needed a remedy and it came in the form of Tuesday's 3A/4A District 1 victory.
"We haven't reached 40 (points) in about four games, so this is a big night for us," said first-year Blackhawk coach Heath Neal. "We were up five with a minute, 40 (seconds) to go against West Fork (on Friday) and had two critical turnovers that led to two threes that got us beat (31-29).
"So we needed this. We needed to close out a win like this."
Anthony was three of five from 3-point range and finished with a team-high 18 points. She scored 12 to help spur a pair of second half runs that put the game away. But that wasn't all. Anthony, who is verbally committed to sign with Ottawa (Kan.) University, grabbed seven rebounds, made five steals and dished out four assists.
The all-out, all-the-time senior guard even ended up in the third row of the bleachers after chasing down a loose ball. She helped the Lady Blackhawks secure the ball down the stretch, including one possession when they milked more than two minutes off the clock before Hollyn Davis hit a wide-open to Alli Whatley for an easy bucket from the block.
"I wanted this win," Anthony said. "We've been struggling offensively and we were pumped up after losing by 2 points to West Fork. We wanted that win, too, but didn't get it, so we came out pretty fired up for this one."
The Lady Blackhawks (11-7 overall, 5-3 in district) never trailed despite the Lady Pioneers' (9-7, 4-7) best efforts.
Led by seven straight points by Anthony, the Lady Blackhawks turned a 17-12 halftime lead into a 28-16 lead. But Gentry trimmed the deficit to 28-27 by closing out the third quarter with an 11-0 run.
Pea Ridge answered by opening the fourth quarter with an 11-0 run of its own behind back-to-back buckets by Avery Dayberry and 5 straight points by Anthony. The run was fueled by three straight steals by the Lady Blackhawks, who are limiting opponents to 33 points per game.
"I'm a firm believer that our defense keeps us in it," Neal said. "Our defense has got to produce some sort of offense off of transition buckets for us to be successful because we go through lulls where we can't shoot it."
Neal also said "Whatley gave us a spark off the bench with 8 points, and we won by 8, so she was a huge factor."
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Editor's note: Mike Capshaw contributed to this article.
Sports on 01/25/2017