Van Buren Lady Pointers, Kinney make it three in a row

The Lady Pointers won their third straight Neosho Holiday Classic and Jamilyn Kinney also won her third straight Most Valuable Player award. Morrilton won three in a row during the era of Shekinna Stricklen, who’s currently playing in the WNBA with Connecticut. “That’s only been done once before in the Shekinna Stricklen years,” Van Buren head coach Chris Bryant said. “The fact that it’s only been one other time in 63 years and that was by a team led by a WNBA player definitely speaks volumes for what these kids have been able to accomplish the last three years and what kind of player Jamilyn is.” Van Buren went 3-0 against Bentonville’s junior varsity, Bentonville’s varsity and Springdale Har-Ber in the championship game. “We’re really pleased with the competitiveness and toughness we played with,” Bryant said. “In the semifinals against Neosho, Har-Ber shot over 70 percent. In the finals, we really defended, and they shot 29 percent from the game.” Van Buren held Har-Ber to just two points in the third quarter. Kinney scored 24 points in the finals. Van Buren was supposed to play Saint Joseph, Mo., Central in the opener but after Cedar Ridge withdrew on Christmas Eve because of several players coming down with flu symptoms, the bracket was redrawn with the addition of Bentonville’s junior varsity being put up against Van Buren. Host Neosho then played Central in the opener. That also put Bentonville’s junior varsity, Bentonville’s varsity, and Har-Ber in the same side of the bracket. Playing three games against fellow 7A-West schools in the eight-team tournament will likely lead Van Buren to seek an alternative tournament over the Christmas break in the future. Related More high school basketball “We feel really good about what we were able to accomplish and the way we were treated in the years we went up there,” Bryant said. Pointers Van Buren won three of four games in the same tournament in Neosho. The Pointers dropped the opener to Memphis Mitchell before rallying with three straight wins. “We lost the opener to a very good and very athletic team out of Memphis,” Van Buren head coach Austin Trembley said. “We got in a little bit of a hole.” Van Buren defeated McDonald County, Bentonville West and host Neosho to finish the four days with a 3-1 mark. Van Buren opens against Bentonville West on Friday at home. “It was a good win against Bentonville West,” Trembley said. “It was a tight game. We had a fourth-quarter lead against Conway and Bryant, and didn’t really understand how to win those. We lost both of those that we could have won. We won this one, which was really good to get that experience.” The conference opener on Friday marks the first home games for the Pointers since the Citizens Bank Classic in early December.

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VAN BUREN LADY POINTERS, KINNEY MAKE IT THREE IN A ROW

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Times Record | 1/4/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: Brian D. Sanderford