CONWAY -- Saturday's result caught Johnny Rice off guard, but it was a pleasant surprise for the North Little Rock coach.
Sophomores Moses Moody and Spencer Simes each scored 19 points as the Charging Wildcats earned a comfortable 66-40 victory over two-time Class 4A state champion Baptist Prep in the John Stanton Classic at Buzz Bolding Arena.
North Little Rock (7-3) scored the game's first 15 points and the 'Cats' lead in the second half never dwindled below 17 points.
"The last two days defensively, that's the best we've looked in a few years," Rice said. "I'm talking about as a unit. It wasn't just one guy. It was all five of us defending. We did a great job."
Issac McBride, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Sophomore of the Year for 2017, led Baptist Prep with 16 points but the 6-1 junior guard was saddled with three first-half fouls.
North Little Rock outrebounded Baptist Prep 37-26 while going 22 of 48 from the floor compared to 12 of 43 for the Eagles. Baptist Prep (10-2) missed its first eight field-goal attempts and did not score until Brooks Spoon's three-pointer with 1:08 remaining in the first quarter.
"We did not play our best game," Baptist Prep Coach Brian Ross said. "But their quickness and their athleticism is really tough for us to play against. We just didn't handle it well today."
Moody, a 6-5 sophomore forward, was 6 of 6 from the free-throw line and grabbed 6 rebounds. Simes, a 6-3 sophomore forward, had eight rebounds to go along with 19 points. Justin Thrower added nine points for the 'Cats, all of which came on three-pointers.
No one other than McBride had more than six points for the Eagles.
"We made things tough on Issac as much as we could," Rice said. "We know he's going to make shots, but we wanted him to earn every one of them. I thought we did a great job with that."
"When we play a team of that caliber, we really need McBride to be hot," Ross said. "And he wasn't hot. We just got off to a bad start and we had a hard time recovering."
North Little Rock also held a 12-8 advantage on steals. Moody and Simes had three steals each. Javion Collins made three steals for the Eagles.
NORTH LITTLE ROCK (66)
Jordan 3 2-2 8, Fresh 0 1-2 1, Thrower 3 0-0 9, Moody 6 6-6 19, Simes 6 6-12 19, Agee 1 0-0 2, Washington 0 2-2 2, McCollugh 2 0-0 4, Williams 0 0-0 0, Shaw 1 0-0 2, Veasley 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 17-24 66.
BAPTIST PREP (40)
Renshaw 0 0-1 0, Collins 1 4-6 6, McBride 5 2-3 16, Singleton 0 0-0 0, Cobb 0 4-4 4, Roberts 0 0-0 0, J. Bucher 2 0-0 4, Spoon 2 0-0 5, Evans 0 0-0 0, Kaufmann 1 0-0 2, S. Bucher 1 0-0 3. Totals 12 10-14 40.
NLR (7-3);15 25 16 10 -- 66
Baptist Prep (10-2); 3 15 17 5 -- 40
Three-point goals -- NLR 5 (Thrower 3, Moody, Simes); Baptist Prep 6 (McBride 4, Spoon, S. Bucher). Team fouls -- NLR 17, Baptist Prep 20.
Sports on 12/17/2017