FAYETTEVILLE -- Little Rock Central coach Michael Green looked toward his bench a number of times in the first half Saturday afternoon in search of answers.
There wasn't a lot he and his Lady Tigers could do.
Bulldog Classic
Girls Finals
North Little Rock 69, Little Rock Central 41
NLR^24^25^13^7^–^69
Central^10^6^15^10^–^41
NLR: Brown 20, Neal 13, Hawkison 10, Morris 10, Mackey 6, Ott 6, Pettus 4.
LR Central: Hall 14, Barnum 13, Pendleton 11, Cole 3.
Boys Finals
Lee’s Summit (Mo.) West 66, Jacksonville 26
Lee’s Summit^13^16^22^15^–^66
Jacksonville^14^7^2^3^–^26
Lee’s Summit: Johnson 19, Anei 17, Bishop 12, Kardell 9, Sirno 3, Baggett 3, Brooks 2, Payne 1.
Jacksonville: Hawkins 7, Phillips 6, Davis 5, R. Maxwell 4, White 2, James 1, J. Maxwell 1.
Saturday’s scores
Girls
Sapulpa, Okla. 58, Greenwood 39
Mountain Home 55, Hillcrest, Mo. 17
Fayetteville 60, Jonesboro 51
North Little Rock 69, Little Rock Central 41
Boys
Harrison 58, Hot Springs 29
Fayetteville 69, Springdale 61
Conway 57, North Little Rock 49
Lee’s Summit West 66, Jacksonville 26
North Little Rock knocked down its first seven 3-pointers and cruised to a 69-41 win in the Bulldog Classic championship game against its conference rival. Guard De'Myla Brown, who scored 22 points in a win against Jonesboro Friday, led the Lady Charging Wildcats with 20 points and was named tournament Most Valuable Player.
"She had a terrific tournament," North Little Rock coach Daryl Fimple said of Brown, who also added three steals. "She's a hellacious defender, and another thing, our team is so unselfish it could be a different person and a pick-your-poison kind of thing. She had a great tournament."
North Little Rock had it all working and raced out to a big lead early behind the barrage of 3-pointers. Fimple's club knocked down eight of nine by halftime and extended a 24-10 first-quarter edge to 33 at the break. Amber Hawkison, Brown and Tiana Mackey each hit a pair of 3-pointers in the first half.
North Little Rock's hot shooting sparked a 21-2 second-quarter spurt to blow the game open. Pre-game, Fimple stressed toughness to his players entering the final day of the tournament fresh off a rout of Jonesboro.
"You really have to leg it out the third day, and I thought our kids responded well," said Fimple, whose club assisted on 13 of 24 makes. "To come here and play as well as we did is certainly a good thing.
"We knew we were very capable of that, but I thought yesterday we shot it real well, too. The teams here and the level of play is a lot like the state tournament."
Hawkison, named to the all-tournament team following the win, followed Brown with 10 points and six rebounds while Jordyn Neal added 13 on three 3-pointers and six assists. Yo'Myris Morris recorded a 10-point, 15-rebound double-double as well to round out a balanced scoring night.
A night after holding high-powered Jonesboro to 53 points, North Little Rock's defense also came to play again and scored 17 points off 16 Little Rock Central turnovers. The Lady Tigers shot just 18 percent in the first half and 31 percent for the game.
Central's Erynn Barnum, who scored 27 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in Friday's win against Fayetteville to reach the finals, finished with 13 points and four rebounds. Junior Ariyanna Hall scored a team-high 14 in the win.
Boys
Lee's Summit (Mo.) West 66, Jacksonville 26
Braylon Hawkins scored the opening seven points of the game for a Jacksonville team coming in off an impressive win against class 7A favorite North Little Rock Friday night.
The rest of the day, though, belonged to RJ Johnson, Yor Anei and Lee's Summit West (Mo.). Johnson scored a game-high 19 points in the boys finals on his way to tournament Most Valuable Player honors while Anei added another double-double.
Johnson scored 16 of his 19 in a dominant third quarter in which the Titans outscored Jacksonville 22-2. He connected on six of eight shots -- four 3-pointers -- to push the Titans' eight-point halftime lead to a running-clock rout.
"My teammates were just finding me and giving me good looks," Johnson said. "My shots were falling. But as much talent as we have we've still got to work hard and learn to outwork teams."
Johnson's game was a welcomed sight for Lee's Summit West coach Michael Schieber, who was without 6-5 forward Malachi Butler (ACT testing). Starting guard Phillip Brooks was also battling a lingering stomach bug.
"We've just waited for RJ to make some shots," Schieber said. "Once he saw it going through the net his eyes got pretty big."
Anei, the Titans' 6-11 forward, scored 13 of his 17 points in the first half and owned Lee's Summit West's 16-point second quarter. He completed two three-point plays and added a monstrous putback dunk in an 11-4 run to give the Titans a 29-21 halftime lead.
Christian Bishop put the finishing touches on an impressive weekend with 12 points and nine rebounds. Bishop earned all-tournament honors after controlling the glass in each of Lee's Summit's wins, including a 24-rebound effort against Springdale on Thursday. The Titans finished with 20 second chance points and a 45-19 rebounding edge Saturday with Schieber's bigs leading the way.
"They did a great job," Schieber said of Anei and Bishop. "We're blessed with some guys that can play. I thought we came out a little sluggish, but we certainly turned it on in the second half. I think they got a little tired, and we talk all the time, that's why we run and do a lot of conditioning."
The Titans kicked off their season in style over the weekend, and Schieber came away most proud of his team's togetherness.
"Just because you have some talent doesn't mean you're going to be good," he said. "I think these guys came out and showed some real toughness over these three days. I thought we got progressively better. We're just kind of scratching the surface a bit."
Hawkins led Jacksonville with seven points in a disappointing loss. The Titans hit just 2 of 19 shots in the second half and scored 12 points over the final three quarters.
Sports on 12/10/2017