It didn't look like it was going to be Little Rock Central's night with the Tigers trailing Bryant 31-8 early in the second quarter of Friday's home game against Bryant.
In what Tigers Coach Oliver Fitzpatrick called a "teachable moment," the Tigers kept playing and wound up with a 69-61 victory over the Hornets to secure their first 7A-Central victory of the season.
"I believe in teachable moments and our kids learned tonight to not quit and keep playing hard,'' said Fitzpatrick.
Central (5-9, 1-2) trailed 27-8 after one quarter and 45-27 at halftime. Heading into the fourth quarter, Bryant (10-6, 1-2) had watched its lead dwindle to 52-45.
The Tigers opened the final quarter on a 14-4 run to take its first lead at 59-56 with 4:40 left. Central started the final quarter hitting 5 of 6 shots, four of the baskets three-pointers, two of them by Jakaylyn Jackson, who finished with 16 points.
Bryant managed ties at 59-59 and again at 61-61, but K.D. Arnett's dunk with 1:44 left put the Tigers ahead to stay. Arnett finished with 9 points, 5 coming in the final 1:44.
"It was just the effort of the kids,'' said Fitzpatrick. "We started putting pressure on their perimeter players and started to deny. In the first half we kinda got away from that and they were able to exploit that."
Jackson and Rajhon McIntosh finished with 16 points each and Antoine Williams scored 15 for the Tigers.
Deron Canada led the Hornets with 14 points. Sophomore Khalen Robinson scored 13, Rodney Lambert 11 and Camren Hunter and Sam Chumley finished with 10 points each.
Sports on 01/13/2018