5A-CENTRAL BOYS
LITTLE ROCK PARKVIEW 57, MAUMELLE 51
The odds of the Little Rock Parkview Patriots winning a conference championship this late in the season are not good.
Still, Patriots Coach Scotty Thurman likes where his team is sitting as the postseason looms.
The Patriots (12-13, 6-4 5A-Central) defeated league-leading Maumelle Hornets (16-10, 9-2) 57-51 Tuesday night at Rip Arena. Parkview is still two games back in the conference standings.
"It was a rocky game but we need games like this to continue to build,'' said Thurman. "We have had an up and down season and we have played a lot of good quality competition. Sometimes we have not had what we needed."
It was the Patriots' defense that won this one. After a 31-31 first half, the Hornets scored 20 points in the second half, shooting 7 of 30 from the field.
Parkvview was not much better, including going scoreless for almost five minutes to start the final quarter. During that drought, the Patriots' 49-39 was cut to 50-47 with 2:33 to play.
Drake Marbley scored on a drive with 2:07 left and Christian Sanson added a free throw with a little more than a minute left to build the cushion to 53-47.
Maumelle's Jacob Lanier scored with 58 seconds left to make it 53-49. The Hornets had chances to get closer but hit just one of their final five shots, the one a rebound dunk in the final seconds.
Nate Coley led the Patriots with 27 points, including 3 three-pointers in the third quarter. Marbley scored 13.
"This was a huge win,'' said Thurman. "We felt like we let them off the hook last time at their place with about four minutes left in the game.
"They have a good team and they took care of their home court, and we wanted to make sure that we did the same thing here.
"We are playing our best basketball here at the end of the season and are trying to keep that going. I think we are headed that way. We still have some work to do, some things to clean up on the backboard, guarding defensively, but I think our guys are starting to come together. I think this is a critical stretch of the year."
Maumelle was led by Lanier with 11 points. Addison Shelton added 9 points and Markalen Rochell had 7 before being injured early in the fourth quarter.