Lady Bulldogs visit VB on 48-game 7A-West streak

The Van Buren Lady Pointers get a shot at history on Friday night when Fayetteville comes calling. With Tuesday’s 65-41 win against Rogers, the Lady Bulldogs won their 48th straight 7A-West game to set the girls’ conference record. Northside held the previous record, winning 47 straight conference games from 2004 when the Lady Bears won their final game, into 2005 when they were 14-0, through 2006 when they were 16-0 in the nine-team league, and 14-0 in 2007 before losing to Rogers in the third game of the 2008 campaign in January. Vic Rimmer’s Lady Bulldogs won their last 11 games of 2016 after losing in January at Springdale, and reeled off successive 14-0 seasons in 2017 and 2018 before opening up this year with nine straight conference wins heading into Clair Bates Arena on Friday. “Anytime you have an opportunity to play Coach Rimmer and his squad, you have the opportunity to play against a tremendous ball club,” Van Buren head coach Chris Bryant said. “Friday night will be no different. They have persevered and played at a very high level, obviously, for these four years. They show no signs of slowing down any time soon. At the same time, it’s an opportunity we’re looking forward to.” Fayetteville has two of the top players of the 2020 class in Sasha Goforth and Coriah Beck. “They’ve had tremendous personnel and they’re very well coached, but they value every year during this streak, and Coach Rimmer has commented that they value conference championships,” Bryant said. “They don’t take them for granted. They’ve had some games go down to the wire, including one this year. They’ve made a lot of plays.” The Lady Bulldogs’ margin of victory in 7A-West play this season is 23 points per game, but needed Beck’s driving basket at the buzzer to clip Bentonville, 41-40, three weeks ago. For the Lady Pointers, this concludes a three-game stretch against the top three teams in the conference. “We’re in the middle of this run with the three top teams in the league,” Bryant said. “We have to get through this with a measure of confidence and hopefully a quality of play that we can finish the last four games out with. Those are all games we feel like if we play well we’ll have an opportunity to win.” The Pointers were close on Friday night, dropping a 59-55 decision at Bentonville. Gary Phillips poured in 22 points for the Pointers with Brayden Gilmore adding 16. A 3-pointer by Phillips with nine seconds left had Van Buren within, 57-55, before Bentonville closed it out with two free throws to secure the win.

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LADY BULLDOGS VISIT VB ON 48-GAME 7A-WEST STREAK

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Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette | 2/8/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Van Buren High School Athletics