CONWAY — The Bryant Hornets freshman team has had slow starts before. Why, just last Saturday, they struggled early only to catch fire and roar to victory in the championship of the Kameron Hale Invitational Tournament at Lake Hamilton.
So it wasn’t so alarming when they fell behind 7-2 to the Conway White Wampus Cats freshman team when they returned to Central Arkansas Junior High Conference action on Thursday night at Buzz Bolding Arena.
After all, they’d led 2-1 until, with just over a minute left in the first quarter, a mysterious technical foul was called on the Hornets and, with two free throws, Conway White took the lead.
And by the time the first quarter was over, the Cats led 7-2.
And they made some noise in the second quarter though, after going 1 for 6 from the field in the first period, they went 3 of 10 in the second. Still, they were down just 16-9 going into the final minute of the half thanks to baskets by Jalen Montgomery, Hayden Schrader and Braden Godwin.
Conway White scored the last basket of the half, however, which started a 19-4 surge as the Hornets started the second half in similarly frigid fashion. Only Myles Aldridge and Ryan Riggs scored in the third period and the lead drew to 35-13 early in the fourth.
That proved to be too much of a hole to dig out of though Riggs and Aiden Adams each hit a pair of 3’s down the stretch, the Hornets just could not contain the speedy Cats’ guards, who constantly attacked the basket and earned 19 free throws in the game (though they converted just eight), while the Hornets wound up attempting just two free throws the entire game, both in the second quarter.
Bryant suffered just four more turnovers than Conway White but shot just 10 of 40 from the field (25%) from the field. The Cats owned the boards too, finishing with 39 caroms including 15 on the offensive end, to 20 altogether for Bryant.
Riggs finished with 8 points to lead the Hornets. Adams had 6, Schrader 4, Montgomery 3 with Aldridge and Godwin adding 2 apiece.
Conway White improved to 7-1 in conference play, keeping the pressure on unbeaten North Little Rock and moving a game ahead of rival Conway Blue.
The Hornets fell to 9-6 overall and 3-5 in league play going into Monday’s home game against the rival Benton Panthers. The two teams have split two games so far this season. Benton won by 2 and Bryant won by 1.
