Little Rock McClellan came up with enough plays to hold off Little Rock Hall 66-62 in the Jammin' for Jackets Tournament on Thursday night at North Little Rock.
The Lions (5-2) led most of the way but had to repeatedly hold off the Warriors (4-4). The game wasn't decided until McClellan's Keith Hayes hit two free throws with five seconds remaining.
"I thought all we did was win the game,'' McClellan Coach Chris Threatt said. "I thought in the first half we were right on the verge of stretching things out ... and we didn't stretch it. We did that early in the second half as well. We had opportunities to get a little cushion and we didn't do it."
McClellan advanced to tonight's semifinal against North Little Rock. Hall will play Little Rock Fair in the consolation round at 5:30 p.m.
Trailing 64-62, the Warriors missed a layup attempt that McClellan chased down. Both teams suffered turnovers in a wild five-second span that ended with Hayes getting fouled. Hall never led in the second half, but twice cut the lead to one, the last time at 63-62 with 21 seconds remaining.
Hayes finished with 24 points to lead the Lions. Andre Jones and Marcis Harris scored 10 each and Raymond Harris added 7.
Dayton Artis paced a balanced Hall attack with 15 points. Draylon Walters and Antonio Edwards had 11 points each, while Robert Verges added 9 and Antonio Smith 8.
"I think for periods of the game Hall played harder than we did,'' Threatt said. "I think they scrapped. I don't think they wanted to win more than we did, but they were playing harder at stretches and the fact that they were playing hard sometimes makes up for things not working."
The Warriors had two leads in the first half, the last at 9-8 with 7:48 left in the second quarter. McClellan scored the next six points and never trailed again.
Sports on 12/12/2014