BENTONVILLE -- Despite a significant height disadvantage, Wynne wore down Bentonville with its quickness and aggressiveness Friday, rallying to a 59-50 win over the Tigers in the Crabtree Invitational at Tiger Arena.
The Yellowjackets (3-3) trailed 44-41 after three quarters, but outscored the Tigers (0-3) 18-6 in the final frame. Tyler Hutchinson scored 16 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter, including four 3-pointers, and punctuated the effort with an alley-oop dunk at the 1:20 mark to give Wynne a six-point lead.
Wynne^8^18^15^18^—^59
Bentonville^13^17^14^6^—50
Wynne (3-3) — Hutchinson 22, Clark 11, Patterson 7, Burgess III 7, Light 5, Merriweather 4, Douglas 3
Bentonville (0-3) — Shanks 21, Akbar 12, Smith 6, Hutchinson 5, Mays-Hunt 4, Hemphill 2
Friday’s Games
Girls — Clarksville 56, Bryant 22
Boys — Bryant 74, Clarksville 53
Girls — Bentonville 66, Wynne 11
Boys — Wynne 59, Bentonville 50
Today’s Games
Girls — Wynne vs. Bryant (East Gym), 8 a.m.
Boys — Wynne vs. Bryant (Main Gym), 8 a.m.
Girls — Bentonville vs. Clarksville, 11:30 a.m.
Boys — Bentonville vs. Clarksville, 1 p.m.
"We're a guard-heavy team," said Wynne coach Russell Jones. "We're still young, but I have the whole starting lineup back from last year. They're so fast. We run a four out and one in, so that's my focal point this year, to play fast at all time and bring a lot of pressure.
"They had tremendous size. I knew there was no way we could go man against them, so I knew we had to apply pressure to see if we could get lucky."
In a hard-fought game on both ends, Bentonville led by as many as seven early and kept Wynne at bay with its length both inside and on the perimeter. Michael Shanks nailed a 3-pointer from the corner to give the Tigers a 39-33 with 3:46 left in the third.
Wynne chipped away and eventually took the lead 49-48 on Hutchinson's 3 with 3:52 to play. He added another at the 1:45 mark, extending the Yellowjackets' lead to 52-48.
"We struggled on offense the whole time and turned the ball over way too much, and that's a big part of it," said Bentonville coach Jason McMahan. "The story of the game for us is we lost our confidence from turning the ball over and not catching the ball, and when you focus on those things, you're not very good. You always have to focus on playing hard on the next possession. We lost that focus, and I blame myself for that."
Shanks led the Tigers with 21 points, including three treys, and Arman Akbar added 12 points.
Bentonville's next shot to get into the win column will be today at 1 p.m. against Clarksville as the tournament continues.
"We've had some amazing stretches against some really good teams, but we haven't been able to put it together," McMahan said. "We had a chance to win this game tonight, but don't score and get scored on in the last few minutes, and that's happened to us several times. We've got to be better defensively and focus on the basics, and on playing really hard."
Boys
Bryant 74, Clarksville 53
Christian McIntosh and Braylon Steen scored 16 points apiece to lead the Hornets. McIntosh also poured in four 3-pointers.
Juan Hernandez led the Panthers with 19.
Girls
Bentonville 66, Wynne 11
The Lady Tigers breezed from the start, leading 32-1 after a quarter and 51-7 at the half.
Lauren Hargus led Bentonville with 14 points. Mykiyah Brown led Wynne with four.
Clarksville 56, Bryant 22
GIRLS -- Clarksville outscored Bryant 23-5 in the third quarter en route to an easy victory in the first game of the day.
Smantha Childers led a balanced scoring attack with 11 points.
Sports on 12/03/2016