File photo by Rick Nation
In 2014, the Bryant Hornets and the Rogers Heritage War Eagles faced each other for the first time when the Hornets trekked to Rogers in late November for a chance to play someone they usually don’t face. Heritage handed the young Hornets a 52-38 loss.
Bryant coach Mike Abrahamson looked at it as a learning experience.
Oddly enough, when both teams qualified for the Class 7A State Tournament at Har-Ber High School in Springdale, they wound up facing each other in the first round.
Heritage survived, 52-48, to end the Hornets’ season.
As part of the agreement between Abrahamson and Heritage coach Tom Olsen was that if Bryant traveled in 2014, the War Eagles would travel in 2015 for a rematch. With all but one player back, the Hornets were expecting better things for the season overall and their 58-43 win over a Heritage squad with several key players back furthered that expectation.
Sure enough, the Hornets went on to win 20 games for the first time since the mid-1980’s and earned a second seed from the Central Conference to the Class 7A State tourney, held this year at Cabot.
And up until the very last game of the regular season, it looked like the Hornets would draw Fort Smith Southside in the first round. But Southside lost to Northside, the crosstown rival. Still, Heritage, which had dropped four games in a row, would have to upset Har-Ber to take advantage of Southside’s loss and claim that sixth and final bid from the West.
But sure enough that’s what they did. Their 59-55 victory kept their season alive and set up another meeting with Bryant.
The two teams will play today at 2:30 p.m., with the Hornets hoping to complete the same kind of sweep that Heritage managed the year before. The War Eagles are 13-14 overall. Bryant is 20-7.
One of those key returning players for Heritage is senior Lexus Hobbs, who finished as the fourth-leading scorer in the West Conference at 15.4. Hobbs had 23 against Bryant in the War Eagles’ State tourney victory last spring and 17 in the win at Heritage. But the Hornets held him to 6 earlier this season while 6-6 post Seth Stanley came through with 14 points. Stanley is among four War Eagles that average just over 6 points a game this season.
The Hornets, meanwhile, have benefited from double-digit scoring nights from all five of their primary starters, senior Kevin Hunt and juniors Calvin Allen, Romen Martin, Lowell Washington and Braylon Steen.
In the win back in November 2015, Martin finished with 19 and Allen 10. In the conference season, Martin has averaged 12.6 a game, Hunt 12.0 and Allen, 10.1.
The Hornets were the top scoring team in the Central Conference, averaging 57.4 points per game. Though they were in the middle of the pack as far as scoring defense (fifth at 50.1 per game), it’s been the defensive work that has proved to be a difference maker for Bryant this season. With more experience on his team, Abrahamson has been able to use zones, traps and man-to-man, changing sometimes throughout a game.
Bryant will be looking for its first post-season win since beating Cabot in overtime at the end of the 2012-13 season. The previous season, the Hornets won two games at State and reached the semifinals where they lost to eventual champion, Little Rock Hall and current Chicago Bulls rooking Bobby Portis.
