Maumelle stumbled to the 5A-West finish line, but the Hornets finished strong enough to secure a No. 1 seed.
Senior guard J.B. Minix scored 14 points and sophomore Tremont Robinson handed out six of Maumelle's 21 assists as the Hornets defeated Little Rock Christian 71-52 Saturday to claim a conference title.
Maumelle (19-8, 10-4) had suffered four losses in five games entering Friday night's conference game with Harrison, but the Hornets regrouped and posted back-to-back victories in a 15-hour span. Maumelle will play at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday at Greene County Tech High School in the first round of the Class 5A State Tournament.
"I got complacent and so did our players," Maumelle Coach Michael Shook said. "We didn't come out with the same fire we had the first time around through the conference. ... We struggled, but the last couple of games we've started to attack at the beginning of games, getting back into our press, rotating and using our depth to get after people."
Maumelle had 13 players participate Saturday and 12 scored. Senior forward Tyshun Robinson scored 11 points and senior Blake Conner added nine. No Maumelle player had more than five rebounds, but the Hornets held a 30-17 advantage on the boards.
But Shook said the Hornets' ability to find the open man made a difference Saturday.
"We're capable of that every night," Shook said. "When we were winning earlier in the season, that's what we were doing. We shared the ball, we made great passes and we put the team first. When we were losing, we were making a ton of turnovers and we were making bad passes."
Little Rock Christian (8-17, 3-11) was no easy mark in its season finale. The Warriors never held a lead but were as close as 36-33 early in the third quarter before Maumelle began to pull away.
Junior Isaiah Harper led the Warriors with 15 points, pulled down 6 rebounds and had 4 assists. Junior guard Drew Smith scored all 12 of his points from beyond the three-point line, and sophomore Austin Guymon came off the bench to score eight points.
Maumelle led 54-41 to start the final quarter and scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter to put away the game.
The Hornets were 29 of 47 from the floor while the Warriors were 21 of 45. Maumelle made 11 of 16 free-throw attempts while Little Rock Christian was 4 of 9 from the line.
Sports on 03/01/2015