Prior to his arrival at Marion, Coach Nathan Clayborn had never heard of Detric Reeves.
Now the Patriots' first-year coach wants everyone to know about the 6-3 sophomore guard.
Reeves has scored at least 21 points in Marion's past six games including a 41-point, 8-rebound effort against Forrest City on Jan. 2. He also had 30-point games against Southside Batesville and Springdale Har-Ber.
"He can flat out shoot the ball," said Clayborn, who had spent the previous five years as an assistant coach at North Little Rock. "Ever since we played in the tournament at Highland during the holidays, he's had the hot hand. Teams are starting to face guard him, but he still manages to find a way to get his shots off."
Marion (9-6) is scoring 72.0 points per game this season. But since Reeves began his scoring spree in late December, the Patriots' average has been 75.8.
"Every one of our players can shoot anytime as long as they play defense," Clayborn said. "As long as it's in the flow of the game and nothing is forced, they're allowed to shoot. But our guys are wanting to get the ball in Detric's hands more and more."
Clayborn said sophomore point guard Makyi Boyce has been doing a good job of getting the ball to Reeves.
In Tuesday's showdown between two of the state's best sophomores, Reeves scored 29 points and handed out six assists while West Memphis post player Chris Moore scored 14 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked 9 shots. West Memphis won the game, 74-62.
MORRILTON
Former coach honored
Morrilton High School will hold a dedication ceremony for its new basketball arena on Friday, Jan. 19.
The school will name its new arena court after legendary coach John Widner before the Devil Dogs' game with Beebe.
More than $50,000 was raised to name the court and construct a memorial wall in honor of Widner, who was posthumously inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.
Widner compiled a 831-197 record during his high school career. His teams won 17 conference titles, winning one state title and finishing as the runner-up four times. In Widner's 14 seasons at Morrilton, the Devil Dogs racked up no less than 22 victories. His 1973 team won the state title.
Widner, who died in 1995, spent 36 years as a head coach. Prior to taking the coaching job at Morrilton, Widner was a head basketball coach at Omaha, Alpena, Green Forest, Flippin and Leachville. He also coached Arkansas Tech to an Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference title in 1984. He retired in 1987.
Morrilton will host the Class 1A state basketball tournament, which starts Feb. 26.
CONWAY GIRLS
Stop, score, stop
Conway's Lady Wampus Cats scored 23 points in the game's final 5:56 to post a come-from-behind 69-64 victory over North Little Rock on Tuesday.
What may be the most impressive part of Conway's comeback was that the Lady Wampus Cats accomplished the feat while using a halfcourt style offense.
"This team is a little bit different than most," Conway Coach Ashley Nance said. "A lot of teams I've coached if they were 10 [points] down going into the fourth quarter, they would have given up. ... This group looks at me like, 'Tell us something to do. We'll fix it.' "
North Little Rock led 47-35 with 2:59 left in the third quarter and was still holding a 10-point lead with 6:10 remaining. But a putback by senior guard Alyssa Netherlain with 5:56 to play was the beginning to Conway's comeback.
Conway (15-1) scored the next nine points and outscored North Little Rock 23-8 to finish the contest.
"I can remember thinking at the point, 'Score, stop, score,' " Nance said. "That's all we've got to do. We've got to score, got to get a stop and we've got to score again. That's our theme that we've been going back to. ... Once we started getting some stops in our 1-3-1, it starting giving [North Little Rock] some fits. And I think it gave us some more confidence on the offensive end."
Juniors Myia Yelder and Asiyha Smith scored 24 and 19 points, respectively. The two combined to score 27 of Conway's 43 second-half points.
Sports on 01/12/2018