SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Brandon Childress' outside shooting and Harry Giles' inside game combined to be too much for Bentonville's boys Thursday night as High Point (N.C.) Wesleyan Christian claimed a 63-55 victory over the Tigers in the first round of the Bass Pro Shops Tournament Of Champions.
Childress' trio of 3-pointers helped him score 12 points in the first half, and the 6-foot-9 Giles added nine as the Trojans (20-2) took a 30-20 halftime cushion in JQH Arena before a crowd that included coaches Mike Anderson of Arkansas, Bill Self of Kansas, Steve Alford of UCLA and Tom Crean of Indiana.
At A Glance
Bass Pro Shops Tournament Of Champions
at JQH Arena, Springfield, Mo.
Thursday
Game 1 — Fairfax (Va.) Paul VI 65, Springfield (Mo.) Parkview 34
Game 2 — Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy 86, Chino Hills, Calif. 77
Game 3 — Oakland (Calif.) Bishop O’Dowd 58, Waynesville, Mo. 42
Game 4 — High Point (N.C.) Wesleyan Christian 63, Bentonville 55
Today’s Games
Game 5 — Springfield (Mo.) Parkview vs. Chino Hills, Calif., 4:30 p.m.
Game 6 — Waynesville, Mo. vs. Bentonville, 6 p.m.
Game 7 — Fairfax (Va.) Paul VI vs. Mouth of Wilson (Va.) Oak Hill Academy, 8 p.m.
Game 8 — Oakland (Calif) Bishop O’Dowd vs. High Point (N.C.) Wesleyan Christian, 9:30 p.m.
Saturday’s Games
Game 9 — Seventh-place game, 2:30 p.m.
Game 10 — Fifth-place game, 4 p.m.
Game 11 — Third-place game, 7 p.m.
Game 12 — Championship, 9 p.m.
Wesleyan Christian took the lead for good with a 9-0 spurt, capped by Giles' three-point play that made it 10-4 with 2 minutes, 44 seconds left in the first quarter. The Trojans took their first double-digit lead when Jalen Johnson's three-point play made it 20-10 early in the second quarter.
Bentonville (7-4), which had a three-game winning streak snapped, did make a serious comeback attempt in the third quarter behind Malik Monk, who finished with a game-high 26 points. He opened the second half with seven straight points to make it 30-27, then hit another 3 to make it 36-33 with 3:28 left in the third quarter.
But Johnson and Kwe Parker did all the scoring in a 12-0 run as Wesleyan Christian extended its lead to 48-35 at the end of the third quarter. The Trojans' biggest lead was 55-37 on Johnson's bucket with 6:35 remaining before Bentonville made it more respectable.
Giles finished with 17 to lead four Wesleyan Christian players in double figures, followed by Childress with 16, Johnson with 15 and Parker with 12. Monk was the only player in double figures for Bentonville, which returns to action at 6 p.m. today against Waynesville, Mo.
Henry Apple can be reached by email at happle@nwadg.com or on Twitter @NWAHenry
Sports on 01/16/2015