Van Buren split nonconference doubleheader

A decisive second quarter was all that separated Van Buren and Greenwood on Tuesday night. Van Buren used a 12-point advantage during a six-minute run on the way to a 62-51 win at H.B Stewart Arena. Van Buren (2-4) will next play in a tournament at Morrilton. Greenwod (1-6) plays Springdale on Friday in nonconference play. Tuesday, Van Buren led just 16-15 before a 7-0 run. Gary Phillips drove and hit a jumper before Maury Newton converted a conventional three-point play followed by a putback slam with 3:47 left in the half upped Van Buren’s lead to 23-17. Braden Stein scored for Greenwood, and Brayden Gilmore answered for Van Buren. After Stein scored again for the Bulldogs, the Pointers went on another 7-0 run. Phillips drilled 3-pointer, Jaiden Henry hit a jumper inside, and Phillips drove for a bucket to give Van Buren a 32-19 with 43 seconds left in the half. Phillips led Van Buren with 21 points. Gilmore added 15, and Newton added 11. Greenwood was led by Caleb Ligon with 20. GREENWOOD 69, VAN BUREN 33 GIRLS – The Greenwood Lady Bulldogs had no trouble bouncing back from their first loss of the season. They scored the first 10 points of the game against Van Buren and rolled to a 69-33 win. Greenwood lost to Bentonville last week after a 4-0 start to the season. “We try to play the best teams, and Bentonville will be one of the best teams,” Greenwood head coach Clay Reeves said. “We’re going to play a lot of them, teams in that category throughout our preseason and conference. We played good at times at Bentonville, and there’s some things we need to get fixed. We’ll work on those things and continue to work on them just like this game, we learned something.” Greenwood (5-1) and Van Buren (1-4) will both play in the Tournament of Champions at Northside, beginning Thursday. Tuesday’s game was a nonconference game, but the two teams will be in the same conference next season. Kinley Fisher drilled a pair of 3-pointers to lead the Lady Bulldogs to a quick start on Tuesday. Harley Terry and Haven Clements added layups, and Greenwood led 10-0 just 1:50 into the contest. Fisher added another 3-pointer in the opening quarter as did Jaelin Glass, and Ally Sockey hit two to end the quarter for a 26-3 lead. “We did shoot really, really well to start with,” Reeves said. “That opened the game up. Our intensity was there, defensively.” In addition to the six treys in the first quarter, the Lady Bulldogs also forced nine turnovers. “They came out with a great deal of energy,” Van Buren head coach Chris Bryant said. “They took it to us. They hit us in the mouth. We had a hard time getting to them. They shoot the ball from so many positions. It’s another really good team from coach Reeves.” Greenwood finally cooled off in the second quarter, and Van Buren went on a 10-0 run to cut Greenwood’s lead to 31-13 with 3:46 left in the half. After Glass drained a trey for Greenwood, Elizabeth Rainwater scored five points in a 6-0 run for Van Buren to cut into Greenwood’s lead a little more at 34-19. “We kind of got out legs underneath us in the second quarter and stopped the bleeding a little bit,” Bryant said. “We just had a problem valuing and taking care of the basketball against their pressure.” Greenwood took control in the third quarter with a 16-7 advantage and invoked the mercy rule in the fourth quarter. “Give Van Buren credit, they got after it harder in the second quarter,” Reeves said. “We missed some shots and kind of went through the motions. We talked about that at halftime. We can’t have a letdown. The third quarter, we came out and improved in the areas that we let up in during the second quarter.” Fisher led all scorers with 20 points with Sockey adding 12, and Mady Cartwright 11. Rainwater had nine points for Van Buren. Brooklyn Kannady added eight points.

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Van Buren High School Athletics

VAN BUREN SPLIT NONCONFERENCE DOUBLEHEADER

LELAND BARCLAY

Times Record | 12/12/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Jamie Mitchell