High school basketball notes

7A-CENTRAL BOYS

Logjam at top

At the start of the week, there were four teams tied atop the 7A-Central boys basketball standings. After Friday, there will be a single leader.

Defending state champion Cabot (14-2, 4-1) and North Little Rock (14-5, 4-1) will play for the conference lead as the teams enter the midway point of the league race.

Friday's winner, however, will not have much breathing room. There is an excellent chance that there will be four teams tied for second place heading into next week's play.

"I've never seen so much parity," North Little Rock Coach Johnny Rice said. "This is only my fourth year as a head coach, but I was an assistant for many years and I've never seen it this competitive from so many teams."

North Little Rock is riding a four-game winning streak, including a 69-66 victory at Fort Smith Northside last Friday and Tuesday's 61-59 home victory over Bryant.

Senior Deion Dobbins led the Charging Wildcats with 24 points against Bryant.

"He did a little bit of everything for us," Rice said. "He crashed the offensive glass and got a lot of his points that way. And he hit some big shots from the outside. He can cause a mismatch with his size [6-4] and that allows him to get a lot of points, and we needed every bit of it."

Cabot rallied from a 27-24 halftime deficit to knock off Northside 65-50 on Tuesday. Guards Bobby Joe Duncan and Jarrod Barnes combined for 33 points against the Grizzlies, but Panthers Coach Jerry Bridges said the difference in the game came when post players Matt Stanley and Jalen Brown became more involved in the second half.

Stanley and Brown combined for 15 points and 9 rebounds in the final 2 quarters.

"Our bigs have to get established for us," Bridges said. "And I thought in the second half we started getting stuff out of our bigs. That's when we're at our best, when our offense is set around our bigs and we're kicking it out to our guards to let them knock down threes. ... But our bigs need to start working from the get-go, and it worked out in the second half."

JONESBORO BOYS

A welcome addition

It has been a dream season for Jonesboro so far, but for the past two years, it's been an anxiety-filled period for 6-7 senior Salisu Yahaya.

Yahaya, who is originally from Nigeria, arrived at Jonesboro as a freshman and saw limited action as a sophomore. But his eligibility came into play, forcing him to sit out while the school, the Arkansas Activities Association and his family ironed out his status.

"It has been a nightmare for him," Jonesboro Coach Wes Swift said. "A lot of these kids get our of their countries and pursue their dreams of playing basketball or whatever. They are kept from living out those dreams."

Swift said there were a number of lawyers involved to cut through the red tape and straighten out all the paperwork before Yahaya could ever step on the floor.

Yahaya finally got his wish last week. After being adopted by Jeremy and Sean Terrell and finding the right lawyers to complete the paperwork, Yahaya was declared eligible by the AAA.

"Nigeria does not like its kids to be adopted, and they'll fight you every step of the way," Swift said. "I think what finally did it was that Salisu turned 18 in August, and that made it easier for the Terrells to complete the adoption."

Greeted by an approving home crowd Friday, Yahaya made his debut during a 68-34 victory over Wynne. Swift said Yahaya was "nervous," going 0 for 4 from the field and missing all four of his free throws in the first half. Yahaya, however, hit a dunk during the third quarter for his first points.

Yahaya finished with seven points and four rebounds. In Tuesday's victory at Nettleton, the fledgling star had 6 points and 6 rebounds in approximately 12 minutes of action.

"I don't know how he's been able to do it," Swift said. "To not be able to play could not have been pleasant. When we told him he would be able to play, he just broke down and cried."

Jonesboro (19-0) is the state's top-ranked team, and MaxPreps has the Hurricane ranked No. 8 in the country.

CUTTER MORNING STAR BOYS

Unbeaten but tested

Cutter Morning Star is off to a 21-0 start this season, and the Eagles have beaten 20 of their 21 opponents by 10 or more points. But Coach Jesse Slick scoffs at the assertion that his team has not been involved in some contentious games.

"We were down by one at the half on the road at Blevins on Tuesday," said Slick, whose team eventually earned a 62-49 victory. "So we've faced some adversity in some games. That game was tougher than the final score indicated."

Cutter Morning Star was also involved in a four-overtime game against Fountain Lake during the Perryville Invitational. The Eagles won 46-43.

Slick said his team's success can be traced to good chemistry and a balanced scoring attack.

"The big thing is that we're playing together," Slick said. "We have a lot of balance and we're defending well. We're shooting the ball well and that always helps, but we're also contesting shots while not getting into foul trouble. We're playing the percentages.

"We're not bailing the shooters out by putting them on the free-throw line. I've told our guys that we don't want to turn a 30-percent shot into a 70- or 80-percent shot from the line. Our opponents will occasionally hit some tough shots, and that's OK. But we don't want to give them many free shots."

Slick said senior guard Chris Babb has been the Eagles' leading scorer for the season but that senior center Jacob Slayton has produced back-to-back 20-point games in Cutter Morning Star's plast two outings. Senior Tae Blevins and freshman Ryan Brown scored 12 and 11 points, respectively, in Tuesday's victory over Blevins.

The Eagles are averaging 63.6 points per game while giving up only 44.1.

"We've had a lot of games with three or four players in double figures," Slick said. "And we'll also have two or three more with eight or nine points in each game. We've been a difficult team to guard."

LAST-SECOND SHOTS

Norfork senior Kelcy Acklin set a single-season state record for three-pointers earlier this week. The 5-6 guard made seven three-pointers in Monday's game against Hillcrest, giving her 126 three-pointers for the season. She finished with 23 points in a 93-33 victory. The record was previously held by Logan Blagg of Clinton, who had 125 in 2009-2010. ... Jonesboro will honor its 2007 state championship team during Friday's game against Forrest City. The 2007 Hurricane lost twice to Forrest City during the regular season but defeated the Mustangs in the title game. ... University of Arkansas signee Daniel Gafford scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds in El Dorado's 61-25 victory over Camden Fairview. El Dorado (17-3) led 34-7 at the half. ... Arkansas signee Darious Hall scored 17 of his 21 points in the first half as Mills (19-1) won at White Hall 72-29 on Tuesday. ... Osceola's Makai Caruthers scored 25 points and had 11 assists in the Seminoles' 83-76 overtime victory over Rivercrest. Steveon Fowler also had 20 points and 16 rebounds for the Seminoles (16-4) ... Bay's Taylor Layne hit 14 of 15 free-throw attempts in a 66-50 victory over Armorel.

Sports on 01/26/2017

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