File photo by Rick Nation
LITTLE ROCK — Bryant Hornets head coach Mike Abrahamson went 11 deep in the first half of his team’s 6A-Central Conference game against the fledgling Little Rock Southwest Gryphons on Friday night. Ten of them scored as the Hornets ran out to an 11-0 lead to start the game and never trailed on the way to a 62-27 victory that ended with the mercy rule (running clock) in effect for the entire fourth quarter.
The Hornets thus bounced back from their first loss of the season, 67-64, to Little Rock Central and improved to 11-1 overall, 3-1 in conference play and keeping a share of second place in the league with their next opponent, North Little Rock, which comes to Bryant on Tuesday.
Freshman Drake Fowler led the Hornets with 12 points off the bench. Cory Nichols, Camren Hunter and Will Diggins each had 7 points. Landyn Newburn and Austin Schroeder had 6 apiece.
“I’m real pleased with some of the guys like Landyn and Drake,” said Abrahamson, adding, in regards to their increased playing time, “They’ve earned it through practice. I mean, I didn’t give it to them. They’ve worked in practice and they played really well tonight. They really helped us on both ends of the court, which was really nice to go with the regulars. And they’re going to become regulars if they keep practicing and playing like that.”
Aiden Adams scored the Hornets’ first basket then Schroeder hit a pair of 3’s on either side on a triple by Hunter to make it 11-0.
Southwest’s Kamal Polite broke the ice of his team but Ruffner answered with a triple to make it 14-2.
That’s when Abrahamson started subbing liberally.
“We really got off to a good start shooting the ball,” the coach acknowledged. “We hit some 3’s.
“But, honestly,” he added, “sometimes that hurts you later in the game, when you start off that hot then that’s all you do, just take fast 3’s. The 3’s that we made early in the game were good shots for our team but then I thought we started settling, especially the second quarter. We took some really bad shots, driving to the basket and just shooting double pumps and things like that, 3’s that were just like first-pass kind of settling.”
The Hornets led 26-11 going into the second period. Fowler capped the quarter with the first of his trio of 3’s in the game.
Nichols hit a pair of free throws to start the second stanza then the game went over four minutes with neither team scoring. Devin Lee ended the Gryphons’ drought then Newburn popped a 15-footer to end the Hornets’ dryspell.
Darius Eason got free for a layup but Bryant still led 30-15. A three-point play by Adams off a feed from Ruffner with 2:30 left in the half. But, from that point on, the Hornets were only able to add a free throw by Diggins.
Southwest got the last two baskets of the half, one on a follow shot by Joshua Randall, the other inside by Emir Siddiq. It was 34-19 at the half. Both teams had scored 8 points in the second quarter.
“I was really not happy with the second quarter,” Abrahamson asserted. “Defensively, we let them get to the rim.”
That changed in the third when Bryant got back in the groove and outscored Southwest 20-4 and creating the 30-plus point lead that set the mercy rule into effect.
“The third quarter, we really did a great job on doing those things better,” he said, “keeping them out of the lane and taking contested shots. That put us in better block-out position then it leads to, hopefully, better offense. So, I was most pleased with our third quarter. We did it on both ends of the court in the third quarter.”
Nichols scored off a feed from Hunter but then Eason posted up for a basket and followed with a steal and dunk to cut the margin to 36-23 with 6:22 left in the third.
But the Gryphons didn’t score again the rest of the quarter. Midway through the fourth, a free throw by LaSavion Phillips ended the long blank space.
It was a 21-0 run for the Hornets that started with a 10-foot jumper by Hunter. Fowler connected on a 3 then Hunter made a steal and layup. A basket inside by Diggins made it 45-23 and resulted in a Gryphon timeout.
In all, the Hornets forced 26 turnovers in the game. And when play resumed, Fowler made a steal and layup. Newburn swiped the ball and wound up at the free-throw line where he converted twice to make it 49-23. Diggins added an offensive rebound basket. Given a chance at a three-point play, he missed the free throw, but he wound up controlling the rebound then kicking the ball out of Fowler for another triple.
That gave the Hornets a 54-23 lead. Even through there was just :19.8 before the end of the quarter, Southwest took a timeout to try to regroup.
Before the Gryphons scored again, Fowler added a free throw and Jaden Montgomery went coast-to-coast off a defensive board to make it 57-23.
HORNETS 62, GRYPHONS 27
Score by quarter
BRYANT 26 8 20 8 — 62
LR Southwest 11 8 4 4 — 27
HORNETS (11-1, 3-1) 62
Nichols 3-8 1-2 7, Schroeder 2-5 0-0 6, Ruffner 1-6 0-0 3, Hunter 3-9 0-0 7, Adams 2-4 1-1 5, Newburn 2-3 2-2 6, George 0-4 1-2 1, Fowler 4-5 1-3 12, Montgomery 1-4 1-2 3, Diggins 3-5 1-3 7, Brunson 0-0 0-0 0, Wallace 2-6 0-0 5, Lindsey 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-59 (39%) 8-15 (53%) 62.
GRYPHONS (2-7, 1-3) 27
Evans 1-5 1-2 3, Eason 2-4 0-0 4, Polite 1-1 1-2 3, Page 0-7 0-0 0, Randall 2-4 0-0 4, Lee 3-7 0-0 6, Buckley 0-2 0-0 0, Siddiq 2-4 2-2 6, Phillips 0-0 1-2 1, Robinson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 11-41 (27%) 5-8 (63%) 27.
Three-point field goals: Bryant 8-23 (Fowler 3-3, Schroeder 2-5, Hunter 1-4, Wallace 1-4, Ruffner 1-3, Adams 0-2, George 0-2), LR Southwest 0-2 (Evans 0-1, Polite 0-1). Turnovers: Bryant 11, LR Southwest 26. Rebounds: Bryant 11-22 33 (Ruffner 2-3 5, Hunter 0-4 4, Diggins 2-2 4, Nichols 2-1 3, Adams 1-2 3, Fowler 0-3 3, Montgomery 0-3 3, Wallace 2-1 3, Newburn 0-2 2, Brunson 1-0 1, team 1-1 2), LR Southwest 7-27 34 (Randall 2-6 8, Eason 0-6 6, Siddiq 3-3 6, Phillips 1-3 4, Page 0-2 2, Lee 0-2 2, Buckley 0-2 2, Evans 0-1 1, team 1-2 3). Team fouls: Bryant 11, LR Southwest 15.
