Sellout crowd of 6,500 watches 7A boys game

HOT SPRINGS — There wasn’t an empty seat in Bank of the Ozarks Arena on Saturday morning when two of the state’s top high school boys basketball players squared off in the Class 7A state championship game.

A standing-room-only crowd of 6,500 was on hand for the 11 a.m. game that featured Bentonville’s Malik Monk, one of the top junior prospects in the nation, and KeVaughn Allen, North Little Rock’s senior guard and the 2014 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s All-Arkansas Preps player of the year who is committed to Florida.

The game officially became a sellout 20 minutes before tipoff, and the attendance set a record for state championship games at Bank of the Ozarks Arena. The previous attendance record in Hot Springs was set in the 2011 when Alma and Sylvan Hills drew 6,363 for their Class 5A boys final.

Steve Arrison, CEO of the Hot Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau, said it was the first sellout in 111 state championship games held at Bank of the Ozarks Arena, which opened in 2003.

North Little Rock defeated Bentonville 66-59. Allen scored 28 points, and Monk finished with 25.

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