For more photos of this event by Kevin Nagle, go here
Cameron Boothe (21) battles Russellville’s Marcus Jackson for a rebound. (Photo by Kevin Nagle)
At Russellvile on Dec. 5, 2017, the eighth-grade Whirlwinds pinned a 45-30 loss on the Bryant White Hornets of Bryant Middle School. It was one of just three losses the Hornets have suffered this season.
In a rematch on Thursday night, the two teams were locked in a one-point battle early in the second quarter when the Hornets, playing without one of their top scorers and leading rebounder Will Diggins, put together an 18-0 run over the final 3:40 of the first half and the first two minutes of the third quarter.
The 17-point lead was the Hornets’ largest of the night — they matched it again in the fourth quarter as head coach John Harrison was in the process of clearing his bench.
The Hornets turned the tables on the Whirlwinds with a 43-32 victory to improve to 13-3 on the season.
“Overall, I’m real pleased,” Harrison said. “We’ve got one more game left. This team could probably be 15-1. We revenged this loss, which I’m proud of. I wish we could go back and play the other two teams we got beat by. I think they’d be different games. These kids have really gotten better.”
The Hornets lost to North Little Rock Blue on Nov. 14 and Sylvan Hills on Jan. 18. They’ve since won four in a row.
Isaiah Kearney (10) drives to the basket. (Photo by Kevin Nagle)
The teams matched baskets through the first quarter. Isaiah Kearney, on his way to a game-high 18 points accounted for 4 points in the opening stanza and Khasen Robinson buried a pair of 3’s and the Hornets had a 10-9 lead going into the second period.
Along the way, Diggins went down after collecting a rebound and left the game limping. Though he didn’t return, Cameron Boothe and Daizure Hale picked up the slack on the boards with 6 apiece.
Russellville’s Damon Donoho made a steal to start the second quarter and scored to give the ‘Winds an 11-10 lead. But that was the last lead for them after Kearney scored off a feed from Robinson, the bucket that started the game-turning run.
Calvin Myles drives to the hoop. (Photo by Kevin Nagle)
Donoho’s basket came with 3:50 left in the half. The Whirlwinds didn’t score again until the 4:10 mark of the third quarter when Ty Hipps ended their cold snap with an 8-foot jumper.
In the interim, Boothe scored on an offensive rebound and, off a turnover, Kearney hit a layup.
After a Russellville timeout, another turnover led to a 3 for Gavin Burton that kept the push going.
A layup by Landyn Newburn and another by Kearny before the half was over produced a 26-11 lead at the break. And when Kearney scored first in the second half, it was 28-11.
“We wanted to press this group but they beat us by 15 when we went to their place earlier in the year and our press wasn’t effective,” Harrison said. “We didn’t turn them over and they did a good job.
“So, we go to half-court trap and it really got after them,” he noted. “They turned the ball over quite a bit there and we went on a good run. I thought we played really really well that second period and kind of put the game away.
Missed free throws kept the Hornets from blowing up the lead even further. They were just 1 of 8 from the line in the third period. But with Kearney beating the buzzer ending the third quarter, the Hornets still held a comfortable lead of 35-21.
A layup by Burton off a feed from Caleb Carter started the fourth quarter. Xavier Fox-Diaz hit a 3 for Russellville but Newburn’s layup and two free throws by Burton produced the 41-24 lead, matching the largest of the night with four minutes left in the game.
Harrison worked in all 20 of his players down the stretch and Russellville was able to whittle on the lead. A basket by Scotty Kruck was the only interruption for the Hornets.
Fox-Diaz scored all of his team-high 9 points during the quarter to help narrow the gap.
HORNETS 43, WHIRLWINDS 32
Eighth grade
Score by quarters
Russellville 9 2 10 11 — 32
Bryant White 10 16 9 8 — 43
WHIRLWINDS 32
May 0-3 3-6 3, Donoho 1-4 0-0 2, Vines 0-4 2-2 2, Graham 1-4 0-0 3, Rollans 0-2 0-0 0, Hipps 2-4 0-0 5, Buchar 2-3 2-2 6, Wilbers 1-1 0-0 2, M.Jackson 0-0 0-0 0, Payne 0-0 0-0 0, Putnam 1-1 0-2 2, Fox-Diaz 2-4 3-5 9, Sykes 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 10-32 (31%) 10-17 (59%) 32.
Landyn Newburn goes high for a layup. (Photo by Kevin Nagle)
HORNETS 43
Newburn 2-4 0-2 4, Robinson 3-9 0-2 9, Kearney 8-12 0-1 18, Hale 0-2 0-2 0, Diggins 0-2 0-0 0, Boothe 1-3 1-2 3, Burton 2-7 2-2 7, Seelinger 0-0 0-0 0, Carter 0-0 0-0 0, Dugan 0-0 0-1 0, Brown 0-0 0-0 0, Myles 0-1 0-0 0, Hatman 0-0 0-0 0, Keith 0-1 0-0 0, Kruck 1-1 0-0 2, Lewis 0-0 0-0 0, T.Jackson 0-0 0-0 0, Wallace 0-0 0-0 0, Craft 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-42 (40%) 3-12 (25%) 43.
Three-point field goals: Bryant White 6-17 (Robinson 3-8, Kearney 2-3, Burton 1-4, Newburn 0-1), Russellville 4-12 (Fox-Diaz 2-3, Hipps 1-2, Graham 1-1, Vines 0-3, May 0-2, Sykes 0-1). Turnovers: Bryant 15, Russellville 14. Rebounds: Bryant 18-15 33 (Hale 3-3 6, Boothe 4-2 6, Kearney 5-0 5, Burton 2-2 4, Newburn 1-2 3, Robinson 1-1 2, Diggins 0-1 1, Lewis 0-1 1, team 2-3 5), Russellville 8-11 19 (Graham 2-2 4, May 0-2 2, Donoho 2-0 2, M.Jackson 0-2 2, Putnam 1-1 2, Vines 1-0 1, Rollans 1-0 1, Payne 0-1 1, Fox-Diaz 1-0 1, Sykes 0-1 1, team 0-2 2). Team fouls: Bryant 12, Russellville 10.
