HOT SPRINGS — Little Rock Hall Coach George Cirks has been saying all winter that this season's Warriors were a special group. On Friday, the Warriors proved him right.
Junior guard Marland Smith scored 17 points and earned MVP honors as the Warriors capped their best season in school history with a 57-46 victory over the Benton Panthers in the championship game of the boys Class 6A state tournament in front of 3,741 fans at the Summit Arena.
The Warriors (29-2) won their first state championship since 2001. It was the school's sixth state title and it bettered the school's previous best record of 28-3 in 1982.
"Constantly, they proved they were good and really good," said Cirks, whose team finished the season with 17 consecutive victories. "I always worried about them getting up for games, but they always said they'd take care of it on the court and they did. Some may say they talk too much and aren't focused, but they are focused when they hit that floor."
With University of Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey in the stands, the Warriors started the game by hitting eight of their first nine field-goal attempts, and they completed the game shooting 72 percent (23 of 32). Smith was 6 of 9 from the field, 3 of 5 from three-point range and was one of three Warriors to go 2 for 2 from the free-throw line.
Benton (22-7) was a respectable 18 of 41 from the field, including a 10-of-16 performance in the fourth quarter, but the Panthers were never any closer than eight points in the second half.
Hall led 17-3 after one quarter and held a 27-9 lead in the second quarter before failing to score in the final 3:31 of the half. Benton scored the final seven points of the second quarter. But any momentum the Panthers gained at the end of the first half was destroyed when Hall opened the third quarter by scoring the first eight points before Benton was able to get off a shot.
It was the third meeting between the two 6A-South Conference teams and it ended up being the closest of the three, but the Panthers could never recover from their rough start.
"Coach Cirks and Hall obviously had the best team in the 6A this year," Benton Coach Chris Nail said. "They beat us three times, and they played really well tonight."
Four of Hall's five starters all shot better than 67 percent from the field. Ray Jones Jr., who had 16 points, was 7 of 9 from the field; senior Lathan Lewis hit all three of hits field-goal attempts in the first quarter and post player Tevin Worthy was 5 of 7 from the field with a team-high six rebounds.
The only Warriors starter not to hit better than 50 percent from the field was junior A.J. Walton (1 of 3), but the standout guard had a game-high eight assists.
Benton's leading scorer was senior Jacob Yoakum, who came off the bench and hit four three-pointers to account for the bulk of his 14 points. The Panthers finished with eight three-pointers, four of them coming in the fourth quarter.
"We didn't get the job done," Yoakum said. "There was a point we were looking for any shot we could get. I hit my first couple, but not enough of them."
Sam Belcher and Landon Parker each added 11 for Benton. Belcher grabbed a game-high eight rebounds.
Benton senior guard Brandon Jones, who was suffering from some lingering effects of the flu from earlier in the week, was held to five points on 2 of 6 shooting. Jones had been the Panthers' leading scorer in state tournament victories over Jacksonville and Watson Chapel.
"I wasn't really into the game at all," said Brandon Jones, whose only practice with the team this week was in Thursday's shoot-around. "I just wasn't myself."
Walton, however, returned to his old self. Held to two assists in his two previous state tournament games, Walton handed out two assists in the first quarter, the first of which came when he zipped a pass into the middle, finding Lewis under the basket for an easy layup.
"I wasn't making any shots, but I felt good about getting it to Ray, Marland and Latham," Walton said.
Ray Jones Jr.'s three-footer with 5:01 remaining in the third quarter gave Hall its biggest lead at 36-16.
Hall's lead entering the final quarter was 40-21.
Cirks said the Warriors were thinking about becoming the school's most successful team before the game.
"Coach [Jon] Coleman brought up that fact in the dressing room before the game," Cirks said. "The fact we can beat that proves that this is a special group of kids. This is a big positive step for our school. It's a great thing and we brought it back to Hall High School. Hopefully, we'll continue on that trend."