Little Rock Hall Coach Jon Coleman wondered how his team would respond after last week’s emotional loss to Little Rock Parkview. He got the answer he was looking for Saturday night.
The Warriors got a huge effort from senior guard Greg Easter but needed a fourth-quarter rally to knock off Bentonville 71-65 in the Arkansas Hoops Challenge at Maumelle High School.
“You know, the g uys showed a great deal of character [Saturday] in pulling this one out,” Coleman said. “We faced a lot of adversity in playing from behind for much of the game. But the guys met that adversity head on and responded.
“The way they fought to the end says a lot about them, and I couldn’t be any more happy. This a big win.”
Easter scored a team-high 23 points for Hall (6-2), which withstood a huge game from Bentonville’s Malik Monk to pull out the victory. Kaylon Tappin added 11 points for the Warriors, while Anthony Black and Robert Virges had nine points each.
Monk, who is ranked by several recruiting services as one of the top sophomore guards in the nation, scored a game-high 29 points for Bentonville (4-2). Tyler Robinson finished with 12 points, and Mason McNee had 10.
Hall got off to a good start and led by nine points late in the first quarter behind Easter’s hot shooting. The senior guard hit two three-pointers in the quarter, the latter of which sparked an 8-0 run togive the Warriors an early cushion. Hall eventually took a 19-10 lead into the second quarter before Monk started to heat up.
“We knew [Monk] would hit shots. We knew it,” Coleman said. “But he started hitting shots, and we weren’t rebounding either. Because of that, the momentum swung completely and we had a hard time getting it back.”
Hall led 24-17 before the Tigers ended the half on a 16-2 run, with Monk scoring in a variety of ways. His alley-oop dunk with 2:12 left in the half gave the Tigers a 10-point lead, its biggest of the game. He would later add another dunk just before halftime, giving Bentonville a 33-25 lead.
Monk continued his scoring surge in the third quarter, but Hall slowly got back in it by forcing turnovers andkeeping the Tigers off the glass. Another Monk dunk at the 1:01 mark allowed the Tigers to take a 51-44 lead into the fourth. But Bentonville didn’t record its next basket until 4:01 remained in the game. Hall took advantage and reeled off 15 consecutive points to take control.
Hall hit only 18 of its 49 shots from the floor but went 27 of 34 from the free-throw line, including six of its final eight attempts in the final 59 seconds. Bentonville was 23 of 56 from the field and hit 14 of 20 free throws.
Sports, Pages 25 on 12/22/2013