PARAGOULD -- Little Rock Fair won a cold war Tuesday night, knocking off 5A-East champion Valley View 44-43 in the first round of the Class 5A boys basketball state tournament at Greene County Tech.
The War Eagles (18-10) made only 5 of 22 shots in the second half and were 3 of 9 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter, but Fair survived when Blazers junior guard Reed Fischbacher missed two free throws with 3.4 seconds remaining.
Fair junior Jerrick Cole led the War Eagles with 17 points, but he managed only one field goal in each of the final two quarters. Valley View's Alexander Gorton led the Blazers with 20 points, but his second-half scoring was limited to 4-of-6 free-throw shooting.
"We missed free throws down the stretch," said Fair Coach Charlie Johnson, whose team finished fourth in the 5A-Central. "We made too many turnovers and Jerrick [Cole] wasn't on tonight. Maybe he'll be on Friday [in the quarterfinals.]"
As cold as the War Eagles finished -- 17 of 45 from the floor and 7 of 14 from the line -- the Blazers were even worse. Valley View managed to hit only 15 of 46 of its field-goal attempts and 8 of 13 of its free throws.
The final 35 seconds turned into a free-for-all.
With Fair holding its 44-43 advantage, Valley View gained possession on a steal by junior forward Adam Horn. With 18 seconds remaining, Fair junior guard Darrius Jones batted the ball into the backcourt. With players from both teams attempting to come up with the loose ball, a collision at mid-court allowed the ball to roll almost to the end line before the Blazers regained possession
With only 9.3 seconds left. Fischbacher took a pass at mid-court, drove in for a layup and was fouled with 3.4 seconds to play. Fischbacher missed the front end of the two-shot foul before Johnson called back-to-back timeouts to ice the shooter.
Fischbacher's second shot hit both the front and back of the rim before Fair's Kris Bankston grabbed the last of his eight rebounds.
Bankston missed the front end of the one-and-one. Horn grabbed the rebound and got off a 65-footer that hit the backboard.
"It was just a hard-played game," Johnson said. "We were just fortunate to win."
Valley View finished 27-2 with both losses coming by one point. The Blazers' previous loss came on a last-second shot in overtime.
Horn finished with 11 points and eight rebounds.
Nick Jones, who finished with 15 points for Fair, scored five of the War Eagles' 11 fourth-quarter points.
LITTLE ROCK MCCLELLAN 54, NETTLETON 43
Little Rock McClellan made all the proper adjustments to advance to the quarterfinals.
Senior Keith Hayes and junior Andre Jones combined for 38 points as the Crimson Lions ran away from Nettleton in the second half for a victory.
McClellan (21-6) committed eight fouls in the game's first seven minutes but was called for none in the game's final three quarters.
"I thought we were going to foul ourselves out in the first quarter," McClellan Coach Chris Threatt said. "We switched to a zone in the second quarter just hoping to survive the half."
Sophomore post player Jeff Adams kept the Raiders (15-12) in the game in the first two quarters, scoring 10 of his team-high 14 points.
The teams traded leads four times in the second quarter before McClellan settled on a 24-21 halftime advantage. The third quarter belonged to the Lions and Jones, who had 11 points, 2 steals and grabbed 4 rebounds to help McClellan extend its advantage to 44-28 at the start of the final eight minutes.
"I told our guys to be aware of the passing lanes," Threatt said. "When you're playing a team that's trying to take the air out of the ball, you have to step into the passing lanes to force them to speed up the game."
Hayes scored nine of his game-high 20 points in the second quarter. Jones finished with 18 points and seven rebounds. Junior Karson Hayes had all four of his team-high assists in the second half.
Nettleton senior guard Silas Finch scored all 12 of his points in the second half, and junior Wesley Anderson finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Sports on 03/04/2015