Lady Pointers play ‘desperate’ in home win

The Van Buren Lady Pointers were desperate to finish the first half of the 6A-West with a win, and they played like it on Friday night. They stormed out of halftime with an 11-point flurry and rode it to a 44-34 win over Springdale at Clair Bates Arena to punctuate the opening half of the conference round-robin schedule. “I’m very pleased with their fight and competitiveness and their effort,” Van Buren head coach Chris Bryant said. “Springdale’s got a good ball club. We’ve very excited to pick up a hard-fought home W.” Van Buren (10-10, 3-4) hit its first five shots of the third quarter and wiped out a 19-17 halftime deficit to take a 28-19 lead with 4:29 left in the period. The Lady Pointers forced three turnovers and two misses on Springdale’s opening five possessions of the new half. “We have to play desperate to play against quality teams, or any team,” Bryant said. “When we play desperate, we’re very competitive. Tonight, we played desperate.” After Emmalee Greebe scored the final basket of the second quarter to draw Van Buren within, 19-17, the Lady Pointers reeled off five buckets in the key stretch of the third quarter. Kayleigh Evans scored on a turn-around jumper inside, Lexi Miller drove for a bucket, and Rylee Ryan bagged a trey for a 24-19 cushion. After forcing a turnover, Miller went coast-to-coast and scored on a slashing drive before she added a driving basket to cap the 11-0 second-half spurt. “Going into tonight, we tried to establish an inside game,” Bryant said. “We think we have some kids that are capable of being productive around the basket and getting some beneficial matchups so we can attack inside out. We weren’t able to do it right off the tip but at halftime we were able to refocus, and the kids did a real good job of trying to play inside out. When we were able to, it was effective. We saw just getting paint touches whether it was off post entries or driving the basketball.” Jeniya Gause, who came off the bench and scored all 11 of Springdale’s points in the third quarter, hit her third 3-pointer of the quarter to pull the Lady Bulldogs (11-8, 4-3) within, 35-30, heading into the last quarter. Neither team scored in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter before Ryan’s 3-pointer from the corner off a feed from Miller put Van Buren up, 38-30. “That was huge, huge, huge bucket and a great assist by Lexi,” Bryant said. “Lexi came off a ball screen and finds Rylee on the off-side corner. That gave us a little bit of breathing room.” After Ashlyn Minchew scored for Springdale, Evans drove for a bucket, and Ryan scored underneath after Miller made an inbounds pass from halfcourt. Ryan scored 14 points with four treys and grabbed six rebounds. Evans, the reigning Times Record Athlete of the Week, had 12 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and two steals. Miller had 13 points. Gause scored half of Springdale’s points with 17. Van Buren 44, Springdale 42 BOYS – Gary Phillips scored on a driving bucket with 17 seconds left and hit two free throws with 5.9 seconds left to lift Van Buren to its first 6A-West win. Phillips scored eight of his 14 points in the fourth quarter Van Buren (5-14, 1-6). Brayden Gilmore scored 10 points and yanked down 15 rebounds. Vincent mason scored 21 points for Springdale (9-9, 3-4). Springdale tied the game at 40-40 with successive baskets by Jajuan Boyd and Tavari Eckwood, the latter with 62 seconds left. Phillips cracked the tie with his driving basket. Van Buren forced a turnover with 6.6 seconds left, and Phillips swished both ends of the one-and-one free throws to cinch the victory. Van Buren led, 12-6, after a quarter and Springdale forced a 19-19 tie at the half. Logan Brothers’ 3-pointer had Van Buren up, 30-26, before a lone free throw by Springdale cut Van Buren’s lead to 30-27 after three quarters. Boyd’s 3-pointer gave Springdale a 35-32 lead with 4:32 left, but Brothers grabbed a loose ball and dished to Damarius Newton for a basket, Gilmore drove for a bucket, and Phillips added another driving basket with 2:30 left for a 38-35 lead.

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Van Buren High School Athletics

LADY POINTERS PLAY ‘DESPERATE’ IN HOME WIN

LELAND BARCLAY

Times Record | 1/26/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Aaron Shaffer