Bryant boys roll to first round victory at Coke Classic
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FORT SMITH — Thirteen different players contributed to the scoring for the Bryant Hornets on Thursday as they surged past the Charleston Tigers, 76-42 at the Stubblefield Center on the campus of the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith. It was the opening round of the annual Coke Classic, this year hosted by Fort Smith Southside.
The Hornets improved to 8-3 on the season going into a semifinal game in the winner’a bracket against Fort Smith Northside, the defending Class 7A State champion. That game is set to tip at 5:50 p.m., on Friday.
“We had a really good effort defensively,” said Hornets coach Mike Abrahamson. “We’ve played them now three or four years in a row and they always give us a good game. They’re a tough team so we had to play good defense. They had 22 turnovers.
“We weren’t doing anything crazy, just playing good solid defense,” he added. “They come to this tournament to face that kind of situation. It helps them, makes them better for the end of the year. You know, they always have big kids, strong kids. They shoot well. But we played well.
“We held their best player (Brayden Ross),” the coach mentioned. “He was averaging 20. We held him to 14. That doesn’t sound like a huge thing but he only had 2 in the second half. He’s 6-4, 225 pounds, which is a tough match-up for us. He shoots well and he can score off the dribble.
“We scored it well,” he added. “We didn’t shoot it well from 3 (6 of 19) but we got to the basket real well. It was a good game.”
Overall, the Hornets hit 58 percent of their shots (30 of 52). And out-rebounded the Tigers 29-25.
Treylon Payne led the scoring with 17 points. Camren Hunter added 14, Rodney Lambert 11 and Khalen Robinson 8. Khasen Robinson added 5 with A.J. Jenkins and Catrell Wallace scoring 4 each.
Charleston dropped to 8-3 on the season.
