The boys Blackhawk basketball team starts play Thursday night against a tough Subiaco team, and will have tough competition through out the weekend if they can get past the Trojans.
Subiaco is a private Catholic academy near Paris, an all boys school with most of the students living on campus. They mirror Baptist Prep of Little Rock in that they tend to have poor showings in football but have been proficient in basketball.
Their top scorer is James Taylor, a 5'9" junior guard who is scoring at a 16 points per game clip. The next two top scorers are Thomas Myers, a 5'9" junior who scores 10 points per game as does 5'10" junior Elvis Janga. There are three other players who average 7 points per contest, only one of them more than 6 feet tall.
Subiaco depends on speed and shooting accuracy, and that is how they got to their 18-9 record the season. Half their losses have been against large school competition, and while they have had some erratic games, they very nearly upset the No. 1 team in the state in the 4A-4 District finals.
In that game, they battled with Pottsville tooth and nail to a half-time tie, trailed by one after three quarters and finally lost by 2. The game was on the Apache floor, making it a doubly tough assignment as Pottsville ended the year undefeated at home.
Subiaco was a No. 3 seed in their district, but they hammered Ozark in semi-final action to get into the finals. Ozark was then beaten soundly by Booneville in their third place playoff Saturday.
If the 'Hawks can take care of business, hit their usual 3-shots, work the inside game and take care of the basketball, the odds of them winning Thursday night look good. This game is an elimination game, with the loser going home for the season and the winner looking forward to two more region games as well as a place in the state tournament.
The Blackhawk side of the region bracket is tough, playing with No. 9 Ozark, No. 11 Subiaco and No. 13 Berryville. No. 1 Pottsville is grouped with No. 20 Gravette, No. 26 Shiloh and No. 29 Booneville. However, rankings may not be that good an indicator of success with two of the state's top 10 teams (Stuttgart and West Helena) losing in the first round of district thus ending their seasons.
The Blackhawks were in a slump of much of last week, but they came out of in the second half of Saturday's matchup with Gravette, beating them without going into overtime for the first time this year. Their first two face-offs saw the 'Hawks win in four overtimes, then three overtimes.
Gravette, by virtue of their loss, have to take on No. 1 state ranked Pottsville in the first round. The Lions are a talented and tall team with a chance to take down Pottsville. The Lions have lost three of their past four games and might be a bit down, but they could surprise the favored team. Pottsville has a deep roster (28 players) with numerous players 6'3" or taller. They were much taller than Subiaco, but very nearly lost on their home floor.
In the Ozark/Berryville matchup, I would tend to favor the host Bobcats. Ozark has not been playing as well as they have been earlier this year while Berryville is likely sky high after their unexpected district championship run last week.
However, this is high school, and it is playoff time. Unusual things have happened, and will happen. Half of the state's 48 4A teams have already been eliminated from the playoffs and Wednesday's and Thursday's games will halve that number again, leaving 12 for the state tournament.
It is the Arkansas three step, with first round losers of district and region competition having their season come to a close. For the first round winners, there are at least three more games to play.
The Natural State is unusual for this type of format with most if not all other states simply have playoffs like they do in football, meaning the first loss in the playoffs is your last one. Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas have playoffs where the teams play until they get beat, like the NCAA tourney.
The nice thing about this type of playoff system is that if a district has the two best teams in the state, they both could make the state final, where that isn't possible with our neighboring states. I suspect the AAA's prime motivation is that the more games that are played, the more income the AAA will have.
Having said that, I am glad we have the system we do because we are still in the hunt. There have been state champions in the past who have lost a game or two along the way but still emerged at the top of the heap by season's end. We could be that team this year, as could several others in a year with maybe a dozen teams that have a shot at the top prize.
4A-3A-1 Final Conference Standings
1.^Pea Ridge^17-1
2.^Gravette^13-5
3.^Prairie Grove^12-6
4.^Elkins^12-6
5.^Shiloh^12-6
6.^Gentry^7-11
7.^Haas Hall^6-12
8.^Lincoln^6-12
9.^West Fork^5-13
10.^Greenland^4-14
Boys 4A North Region poll
1.^Pottsville^24-2
2.^Ozark^22-6
3.^Pea Ridge^25-5
4.^Subiaco^19-8
5.^Berryville^22-7
6.^Gravette^19-8
7.^Shiloh^16-9
8.^Dardanelle^14-13*
9.^Booneville^19-12
10.^Prairie Grove^14-13*
*season complete
Boys 4A State poll
as of Feb. 16, 2018
1.^Pottsville^24-2
2.^Baptist Prep^24-5
3.^Westside^20-5
4.^Southside^25-4
5.^Stuttgart^20-4*
6.^Brookland^20-8
7.^West Helena^20-2*
8.^ESTEM^21-11
9.^Ozark^22-6
10.^Pea Ridge^25-5
11.^Subiaco^19-8
12.^Robinson^18-10
13.^Berryville^22-7
14.^Bauxite^20-8
15.^Warren^19-7
16.^Riverview^22-7
17.^Ashdown^17-5
18.^Malvern^19-6
19.^Dumas^17-10
20.^Gravette^19-8
21.^Trumann^14-4
22.^Nashville^19-6
23.^Star City^14-10
24.^Gosnell^11-13
25.^Fountain Lake^17-10
other teams from the 4A-1
29.^Shiloh^16-9
32.^Prairie Grove^14-13
34.^Huntsville^13-13
42.^Lincoln^11-18
45.^Gentry^10-17
•••
Editor's note: John McGee is an award-winning columnist and sports writer. He is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, coaches elementary track and writes a regular sports column for The Times. The opinions expressed are those of the author. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].
Sports on 02/21/2018