Hornets bury Clarksville, setting up showdown with Bentonville
EDITOR’S NOTE: Because the look back at each day in Bryant athletic history has been so favorably received during the time when there was no sports during the COVID-19 shutdown, BryantDaily.com will continueposting past stories of Bryant athletics either posted on BryantDaily.com (from 2009 to the present) or published in the Bryant Times (from 1998 to 2008).
BENTONVILLE — In the second round of the Crabtree Invitational Tournament at Bentonville High School on Thursday night, the Bryant Hornets overwhelmed the Clarksville Panthers, 70-18, to improve to 3-0 on the season going into a showdown with the host Bentonville Tigers on Friday.
All 10 Hornets scored, led by senior Deron Canada’s 19 points. Rodney Lambert had 10, Camren Hunter 9, Khalen Robinson 8, K.J. Merriweather 6 with Sam Chumley, Allen Coleman, Ethan Hilkert and Catrell Wallace adding 4 each. Marqelle Barnes finished with 2.
The Hornets ran out to a 21-8 lead by the end of the first quarter with Canada scoring 6 on a pair of 3’s while Hunter and Robinson added 5 each.
It was 39-16 at the half then Clarksville scored just 2 points in the second half.
Lambert had 7 points in the second quarter and Canada poured in 11 in the third quarter. It was 66-18 going into the fourth.
“They’ve got two good guards and we did a really good job on them,” noted Hornets coach Mike Abrahamson. “Those two have been scoring. They’ve been scoring in the 40’s.
“We just played half-court defense,” he noted. “We didn’t press or anything. We were disciplined and I was proud of our effort. The kids accepted the challenge to see it through even after we built the big lead.
“We did good and we got to rest some guys at the end,” the coach concluded.
The Hornets take on Bentonville at 7:15 on Friday night.
