It was a game of two halves Friday night when Little Rock Catholic hosted Fort Smith Northside.
Catholic (12-12, 2-8 6A-Central) held a 10-7 lead over the Grizzlies (15-9, 6-4) at the half, as both teams suffered scoring droughts, but Northside outscored the Rockies 31-20 in the second half.
Northside's Jaylin Williams hit a field goal with 7:02 left in the first quarter, but the Grizzlies didn't score again until Anthony Travis hit a field goal with 6:30 remaining in the second quarter.
Mays Porter hit the first of eight three-pointers by the Rockets at the 6:46 mark of the opening quarter, and Charles Daniel hit another one with 3:04 left in the quarter for a 6-2 edge.
"I wasn't really worried about the threes," Northside Coach Eric Burnett said. "They hurt us in the first game [a 55-50 Catholic victory] when they would penetrate, then kick the ball out to those guys shooting the threes. We told the defense not to let them drive in and kick it out. I thought we did a really good job of not letting them get loose."
The two teams combined for nine points in the second quarter.
Northside outscored Catholic in the third quarter 12-9, with each team hitting 3 three-pointers. The Rockets hit their only two-point field goal of the half when Daniel scored with 19.4 seconds left in the game.
With Catholic forced to foul in the final quarter, the Grizzlies made 7-of-8 free throws in the final 1:08 to seal the victory.
Daniel had a game-high 15 points for the Rockets, while Derrick Perry had 13 points off the bench for the Grizzlies and Williams added 11.
Sports on 02/09/2019