FARMINGTON -- Farmington Coach Beau Thompson can count the number of Division I scholarship players from his conference on one hand.
There were four to be exact, going even further back than his playing days in the mid-1990s at Huntsville.
Maumelle (11-1, 1-0) potentially has three on this year's team, which pulled away for a 82-61 road victory Friday night in the 5A-West Conference opener for both teams.
"That team is ultratalented and will have a chance to win our league," Thompson said.
The Hornets had four players finish in double figures, including Demarian Johnson with 19, Darius Tate with 16 and Tremont Robinson with 14.
But it was Shawn Williams, a 6-foot-1 senior who signed with East Carolina in November, who initiated most of his team's offense. Williams, who celebrated his 18th birthday Friday, finished with 14 points and provided the highlight of the game when he got trapped underneath the basket. He bounced the ball high off the floor and in front of the rim for Robinson, a 6-2 junior who hammered home a one-handed dunk off of the unorthodox alley oop.
It capped a 14-0 fourth-quarter run and a 23-4 run overall after Farmington cut its deficit to 61-47 on a three-pointer by Matt Wilson late in the third quarter.
Maumelle Coach Michael Shook showed about a 36-inch vertical of his own after Robinson's dunk, the Hornets' third slam of the game.
"They know that I'm going to be their biggest cheerleader, so I don't mind getting excited like that," Shook said.
Farmington won the opening tip, surprising the crowd and a smiling Cardinals senior Brice Waggle. But Maumelle recorded three steals before the Cards attempted a field goal. A couple of long three-pointers -- about 8 feet behind the line -- by Williams, a pair of three-pointers from Johnson and a two-handed dunk by Robinson pushed the Hornets to a 27-8 advantage.
"In practice, there's no way we can duplicate their speed, and that's going to take a few possessions to adapt to," Thompson said.
But the Cardinals answered with a 12-0 run that was capped by a reverse layup from Matt Thomas to trim the deficit to 27-20 with 2:08 remaining in the first half. Midway through the third quarter, Farmington trimmed the margin to 51-43 on back-to-back buckets by Wilson.
"I thought we played really hard and did a good job of whittling it down," Thompson said. "They stretched about an eight-point lead to 25 about as fast as you possibly can."
Shook reminded his team of last season's game here heading into its game-deciding, fourth-quarter run.
"With a few minutes left in the third quarter, we were up 17, and we ended up losing," Shook said. "So we really ingrained that in them, that we're not going to let up."
Girls: Maumelle 59, Farmington 52
The Lady Hornets broke a 38-all tie heading into the fourth quarter by turning up its full-court defensive pressure, resulting in a 10-1 run and a 21-14 scoring advantage over the final eight minutes.
The Lady Cardinals jumped out to a 6-0 lead and led at various times through the game before struggling to break the press down the stretch.
Sports on 01/09/2016