North Little Rock avenged its lone 7a/6A-East loss by dominating almost every aspect of Tuesday night's meeting with Mountain Home at North Little Rock arena.
Sophomore guard Amber Hawkison scored a game-high 11 points, junior Mackenzie Tillman added nine points off the bench and North Little Rock held Mountain Home scoreless for the first 8:26 of the second half on its way to a 46-19 victory.
It was North Little Rock's seventh consecutive victory and bore no resemblance to the first meeting between the teams on Jan. 12 when Mountain Home won 58-53.
"Mountain Home tends to control the tempo, which they usually do a pretty good job of," North Little Rock Coach Daryl Fimple said. "Defensively, besides a couple of breakdowns, I thought we did a pretty good job."
North Little Rock led 12-3 after the first quarter, holding Mountain Home to four shots from the floor. Lady Bombers sophomore Maly Tabor hit a three-pointer at the end of the first half to pull Mountain Home to within 26-13, but the visitors did not score again until Tabor hit the back end of a two-shot foul with 7:34 left in the fourth quarter.
North Little Rock led 40-14 after three quarters.
Mountain Home was 0 of 7 from the floor in the third quarter, 2 of 7 from the floor in the fourth quarter and 7 of 28 shooting for the game, including 3 of 16 effort from three-point range.
"I think at times we were too patient," Mountain Home Coach Dell Leonard said. "We only got to the foul line three times and North Little Rock was in a full-court press. I'm not saying we can post up because we don't have a post player, but we can certainly be more aggressive than we were tonight."
Micah Hudson's three-pointer with 4:42 left to play was the first field goal of the second half for Mountain Home (14-9, 5-4), a far cry from the first meeting at Mountain Home.
"It looked like different players on the floor," Leonard said. "I don't want to take anything away from North Little Rock, but we're a lot better than that."
North Little Rock (18-4, 8-1) outrebounded Mountain Home 28-14 and was 18 of 33 from the floor. North Little Rock held a 7-2 advantage on steals.
Tillman ignited the Lady Charging Wildcats during the middle two quarters, scoring 5 of her points in the second quarter and getting 4 points and 2 rebounds during North Little Rock's 14-0 third quarter.
"We started her the other night against Cabot, but I don't think she played as well as a starter as she did tonight coming off the bench," Fimple said. "I think she's a little bit more relaxed coming off the bench. She gets into the flow of the game a little bit better."
Hudson led the Lady Bombers with nine points. North Little Rock sophomore Yo'Myris Morris led all rebounders with six.
MOUNTAIN HOME (19)
Daniel 1 0-0 2, Hudson 3 1-2 9, Pfeifer 1 0-0 2, Tabor 1 1-2 4, Martin 1 0-0 2, Herschberger 0 0-0 0, Walker 0 0-1 0, Zimmer 0 0-0 0. Totals 7 2-5 19.
NORTH LITTLE ROCK (46)
Hawkison 4 2-2 11, Morris 2 1-2 5, Sadler 0 0-0 0, Collier 3 2-4 9, Jones 2 0-0 4, Tillman 4 1-1 9, Settles 0 0-0 0, Kimble 0 0-0 0, Bailey 1 0-0 2, Ford 1 1-1 3, Pettus 0 0-0 0, Mackey 1 0-0 3. Totals 18 7-10 46.
Mountain Home (14-9);3;10;0;6 -- 19
North Little Rock (18-4);12;14;14;6 -- 46
Three-point goals -- MH 3 (Hudson 2, Tabor); NLR 3 (Collier, Hawkison, Mackey). Team fouls -- MH 9, NLR 12.
Sports on 02/10/2016