Blackhawks have a big week

— Charley Chark’s Blackhawks had a big week with a pair of big victories over Shiloh and Rogers Heritage.

The ’Hawks opened conference play with a 74-50 drilling of Shiloh on Tuesday, Dec. 14, followed by a stunning last-second 54-53 victory over Heritage in Friday’s home stand. The wins moved the hardwood ’Hawks to a sparkling 10-3 record on the young season with the boys in black set to defend their Southwest Holiday Classic title in Washburn, Mo., next week.

“We just played great against Shiloh with both our offense and our defense clicking,” coach Clark said. “Shiloh is not as bad a team as they may have looked here Tuesday, but it was a great way to start our district schedule.”Game summaries:

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Pea Ridge 73, Shiloh 50

Although the game was tied 7-0 early on, the ’Hawks exploded to race out to a 23-10 lead by the end of the first quarter. Five ’Hawks scored in the opening period, led by Kasey Cooper’s 3-pointer, pair of fields goals and free throw. Dakota Woodward added a pair of shots from the field as well as a 3-pointer with Cameron Thompson dropping in two shots inside. Ethan Higgins and Joe Adams also connected from the field in the run out.

Shiloh picked things up a little in the second period but a 10-point outburst from Cooper kept the visitors at bay. Cooper hit a pair of treys, scored from inside and sank both freethrows attempted. Higgins and Adams duplicated their goal output from the first quarter and Thompson added a free throw as Pea Ridge went into intermission firmly in control with a 41-22 advantage.

Whatever thoughts the Shiloh faithful may have had for a comeback were doused with six ’Hawks combining to burn the nets for 21 points in the third quarter. Thompson proved unstoppable in the paint as he struck for four goals with Woodward contributing with 4 points via a bucket and two free throws. Adams added four markers with a pair of field goals while Jacob Hall hit from the 3-point line. Cooper and Higgins rounded out the scoring with single goals each as the ’Hawks led 62-37 going into the fourth quarter.

The ’Hawks substituted liberally over the final eight minutes with Shiloh deciding to rack up a number of fouls. The strategy didn’t work against Pea Ridge. The ’Hawks sank 10 of 12 with the sole field goal in the quarter coming from Thompson underneath. Thompson sank all four of his free throws with Cooper, Hall and Levi Roughton each hitting both their shots.

The victory continues Coach Clark’s unbeaten record as a head coach against Shiloh.

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Pea Ridge 54, Rogers Heritage 53

In a game where free throw shooting accuracy was decisive, the ’Hawks converted 14 of 15 chances to turn back their 7A challengers.

The last two opportunities came with less than a secondremaining as sophomore reserve Jacob Hall coolly ripped both his shots to win the game for the ’Hawks.

After missing its first shot from the charity stripe in the first quarter, Pea Ridge hit all the rest of them. Heritage shot well from the line, making 9 of 13, but their last miss proved to be their undoing.

The ’Hawks were down by one with 10 seconds left when the hometown boys had a shot that missed which Heritage rebounded and brought back down the floor. The ’Hawks stopped them with a foul and then came up with a rebound with the ensuing missed shot. The Blackhawks got down the floor, calling time out with four seconds left. With the Heritage defenders draped all over leading scorers Cooper and Thompson on the inbound pass, Hall got loose, took the inbounds and drove to the hoop, drawing the foulwith 0.9 seconds left in the me. The War Eagles called time-out to ice Hall but the sophomore forward responded by sinking the shot to tie the game at 53-all thus ensuring at least an overtime chance for the ’Hawks. After another time-out called by the War Eagles to try and rattle Hall before his second shot, he calmly hit the second shot to decide the game.

“This was a wild game,” Clark said, “and we really didn’t have our best stuff offensively, but we did hit our free throws.

“Defensively, we played great. Their leading scorer Olinger was held scoreless tonight, and that was big.”

The ’Hawks jumped out to a 17-11 lead after the first period of play. Thompsondropped in three goals in the paint, Copper hit a pair of goals and a free throw with Woodward, Higgins and Roughton each contributing 2 points each.

Heritage chipped a little of the deficit by intermission, outscoring the ’Hawks 12-10 in the second quarter. Woodward provided nearly all the offense for the ’Hawks scoring 8 points on a pair of treys and a field goal. Thompson scored once from the inside as Pea Ridge led 27-23 at the half.

The ’Hawks held off the War Eagles in the third quarter, led by a pair of goals and free throws by Thompson. Four points from Cooper, 3 from Adams and a deuce from Roughton got the ’Hawks a little more breathing room as Pea Ridge led 42-36 at the end of the third quarter.

Pea Ridge suffered turnovers and grew cold from the floor as the ’Hawks could only manage three field goals (Thompson, Adams and Hall) in the final period. Heritage got 12 points from Moreland as the guests finally took the lead in the waning moments of the contest. However, the ’Hawks got six chances from the free throw line and they cashed them all in to provide the cushion for victory. Before Hall’s last-second heroics, Woodward and Thompson drained both their chances to give the ’Hawks the chance to have last second heroics.

Thompson led last week’s scorers with 37 points with Cooper canning 32 as the ’Hawks inside/outside prowess continues to take its toll on opposing teams.

Sports, Pages 8 on 12/22/2010