GREENWOOD -- Alma coach Dominic Lincoln learned about the Airedales' rivalries with Greenwood and Van Buren pretty quickly.
"I haven't been here very long but I'm starting to see some of these games a little bit differently than others," Lincoln said. "I walked in and had an Alma native tell me 'If you can do anything, can you go beat Greenwood.' I told him I was going to try my best. I'm really proud of my guys."
Lincoln was hired to replace former boys basketball coach Stan Flenor, the winningest coach in Airedales' history who retired after last season.
Alma outscored Greenwood in each quarter on Tuesday night to earn a 61-53 win at H.B. Stewart Arena.
The Airedales used a 10-0 run to open the third quarter after leading 21-19 at the half.
"That was so huge for us," Lincoln said. "The games that we have lost this year, the third quarter is where we lost the game. I told them at halftime that we have to go out and grow as a team and play really well."
Senior Hunter McAlister had 20 points and nine rebounds in his final trip to Greenwood.
"It feels really good especially getting that first conference win," McAlister said. "It's big. I'm happy for me and the boys to pull through."
Another senior, Logan Taylor, had 12 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists, with four of them going to McAlister, who had two assists to Taylor.
"Me and L.T. have a good chemistry going," McAlister said. "Whenever I had the ball and they would double team me, I would kick it to him. Whenever he'd get it and they would double team him, he would kick it to me. It was going good."
The outing was Taylor's first career double-double.
"It's amazing especially against someone like Greenwood," Taylor said. "I just went out and played hard and did what I was coached to do."
Senior Stewart George handled Greenwood's pressure at point guard and hit all six of his free-throw attempts in the final 1:34. He finished with 15 points.
The usually stoic McAlister finally let out a big smile with Alma up 57-50 with 23 seconds left and George going to the free-throw line after being fouled.
"I did with Stewart going to the line," McAlister said. "He's a big free-throw shooter so I knew he was going to put them in and put us up big time."
Alma is at home against Mountain Home today. The rematch against Greenwood at home is Feb. 22.
GREENWOOD
Lady Bulldogs ready
Greenwood travels to Greenbrier today and then the Lady Bulldogs make another trip down Interstate-40 for the much-anticipated make-up game at Vilonia on Tuesday.
"We went forever without playing a game," Lady Bulldogs coach Clay Reeves said. "Now, we've played four in a row so hopefully playing a lot of games in a row and continuing that will help our momentum and help our chemistry playing games again."
Vilonia is ranked No. 1 in Class 5A while the Lady Bulldogs are No. 2.
Tuesday, the Lady Bulldogs won their 10th straight over Alma with an 81-32 win.
Greenwood scored the first nine points of the game but then went over three minutes without scoring. The Lady Bulldogs then scored 15 points in the final 2:28 of the first quarter for a 24-2 lead and went on to a 49-14 lead at the half.
"We scored nine points really quick, and got some turnovers and converted," Reeves said. "Then we went a three- or four-minute span where we stayed at nine points. We played hard and got up and down the floor. We took our open shots and made them. It was one of our better overall equally balanced games we had."
NORTHSIDE
New digs on display
Northside worked out a few kinks on the opening night of the new $14.5 million gymnasium and now goes almost two weeks before playing at home again.
The Lady Bears opened the new gymnasium with a 50-44 win over Cabot followed by the Grizzlies' 67-53 win in the nightcap.
The scoreboard didn't work early but that was worked out and the two teams completed a successful opening night.
Now, though, Northside hits the road for consecutive trips to Little Rock Southwest tonight, and then Bryant and Little Rock Central next week.
Northside plays again at home on Feb. 8 against Mt. Saint Mary Academy and Little Rock Catholic.
3A-4 CONFERENCE
Log jam at the top
Cedarville, Booneville, Waldron, and Charleston went into Tuesday night atop the 3A-4 with two conference losses each.
Cedarville beat Charleston, 69-58, to remain on top along with Booneville, which squeezed out a 41-40 win over Cossatot River, and Waldron, which beat Danville, 49-31.
Waldron hosts Cedarville today in another early separation game.
Next week, Waldron plays three games, beginning on Valentine's day against Booneville, then travels to Cossatot River on Tuesday before hosting Charleston today.
Tuesday, Cedarville scored 26 points in the fourth quarter to put away the win over Charleston.
Booneville led Cossatot River by 13 in the third quarter before a 37-37 tie with 3:33 left in the game.
MOUNTAINBURG
Colors day for Dragons
Mountainburg will cap a packed week with its annual Colors Day festivities today against Future School of Fort Smith.
Mountainburg swept varsity doubleheaders against Johnson County Westside on Monday and against Magazine on Tuesday.
Mountainburg hosted Mansfield on Thursday.
The packed week was necessary because of Covid postponements for most of January. Mountainburg played Future School on Jan. 4 and then didn't play again until Monday's games against Westside.
Then next week, Mountainburg plays four games again, going Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
"They're all conference games so they all mean something," Lady Dragons coach Zach Dean said. "You really can't condition. The games are conditioning. There's not much conditioning we can do at this point because we need the legs."
The Lady Dragons have won 11 of their last 12 games to improve to 16-2 overall and remain atop the 2A-4 with a 4-0 mark.
Haley Reed continues to play well for the Lady Dragons. She's scored 31 points, 30, and 27, respectively, in the last three games.
FOOTBALL
All-Stars announced
Players and coaches for the annual Arkansas Coaches Association All-Star football game in June was announced by the Arkansas Activities Association on Thursday.
Alma's Conner Stacy, Booneville's Casey Mattison, Cedarville's Darryl Kattich, Charleston's Ransom Merechka, Greenwood's Parker Gill and Jeremiah Presson, Hackett's Peyton Hester, Lamar's Tony Balmer and Casey Carpenter, Magazine's Ashton Droemer, Ozark's Briar Yates, Paris' Duke Walker, and Northside's Brandon Bailey and Ty Massey were selected to play in the game.
Josh Jones of Lamar and Ricky May of Charleston were selected as assistant coaches for the West team.
Brad Harris of Benton was selected head coach of the West while Tom Sears of Hoxie was named the head coach of the East.
The All-Star football game is scheduled for Saturday, June 25, at the University of Central Arkansas' Estes Stadium as part of a tripleheader with the girls and boys basketball game earlier that day. The All-Star baseball, softball, volleyball and soccer games are scheduled for Friday, June 24.