Hanging on to a four-point lead with 1:52 left before halftime, Episcopal Collegiate School coach Brandon Friedel challenged his team to give more effort against Dollarway.
The Wildcats took Friedel's words to heart and closed out the first half with 7 unanswered points, then started a second-half rout that resulted in a 65-32 win over the winless Cardinals at Dollarway Fieldhouse.
"I think the biggest thing was our effort," Friedel said. "We started playing a little bit, like a lot harder. The last few seconds of the second half, our effort just turned the game around. I think that was the biggest key. Our effort led to us boxing out and getting rebounds, pushing the ball up the floor and getting easy baskets and putting a little ball pressure on them where they were just able to turn it over and we were able to get some easy ones off of that."
Episcopal's leading scorer, freshman Kellen Robinson, scored two wide-open layups off steals in the final 38 seconds of the first half, helping the Wildcats (7-7, 3-1 in Conference 3A-6) take a 30-19 lead into the dressing room. Robinson finished with 33 points.
"He averages about 25 points a game for us," Friedel said. "He's really good in transition at will. If we can get a stop and a rebound and we get out, I like our chances in transition."
Dollarway (0-11, 0-4), which led 12-10 after one quarter, got within 30-24 less than a minute into the third quarter before Robinson keyed a 21-4 run the rest of the period, as Episcopal controlled the boards and forced the Cardinals into multiple turnovers in half-court sets.
"We were fatigued a little bit, and we couldn't get out and guard them," Cardinals coach James Jones said. "Plus, I'm not fully staffed yet. I'm missing Mario Jones and Greg McGown."
The Cardinals have been missing key returnees from last season's 3A Region IV tournament team for unspecified reasons and have suffered each of their losses by double digits. The closest they came to a win was a 63-49 defeat Tuesday at Helena-West Helena Central.
"I just tell them to play hard and have faith in each other," Jones said. "It's just a struggle right now. I tell them to play together and allow yourself a chance to win by playing hard and not just laying down and getting beat down by everybody."
Omarion Watson led Dollarway with 12 points. Elijah Mason and Grant Gary each scored eight points for Episcopal.
GIRLS
Episcopal 44, Dollarway 3
Riley Brady and Avery Marsh each scored 12 points in leading the Lady Wildcats (8-5, 2-1) to a rout of the Lady Cardinals (1-12, 1-3).
Dollarway will visit Central Arkansas Christian on Tuesday in Little Rock and will host LISA Academy West next Friday.
Pine Bluff High School's home games against Hot Springs on Friday were canceled due to covid-19 issues in the Hot Springs program.