By Rob Patrick
Photos by Kevin Nagle
The Bryant Hornets freshman basketball team has quality depth. In fact, it’s been a challenge for head coach Steve Wilson to find[more] enough playing time for everybody in a 24-minute junior high game.
Most of the season, he’s played two platoons of five in the first half with the starters determined not only by how they practiced but how they approached practice. Depending on how the game’s going, Wilson then mixes and matches according to who’s playing well; that is, who’s playing with energy, hustling and displaying teamwork as well as who’s scoring and rebounding and defending.
On any given night, any number of players might provide the spark the team needs.
Now, on Thursday night, the Hornets’ starting five was struggling. They were playing well enough on defense but they were having a hard time getting shots against the active defense of the Cabot South Panthers.
The spark came when the second group — on this night, Trevor Ezell, Gray Orman, Davis Nossaman, Mitch Scoggins and Chase Christie — took the court, in particular, the hustle and energy — and scoring — of Christie.
Bryant trailed 5-2 going into the second quarter. Early in the second, Ezell made a steal and fed Christie for a three-point play that tied the game.
Christie would wind up with a team-high 11 points and seven rebounds as the Hornets bounced back from their first conference loss earlier in the week at Conway with a 39-23 victory over the Junior Panthers.
The Bryant team includes Phillip Barnett, Dakota Besancon, Christie, Brandon Cranford, Cedarrian Crosby, Evan Davis, Ezell, Greyson Giles, T.J. Hall, Austin Hammonds, Hunter Holder, Matt Jernigan, Spencer Kilgore, Slade Lewis, Madre London, Dylan Masters, Nossaman, Orman, Garrett Phillips, C.J. Rainey, Brian Reed, Scoggins and Caleb Strain.
The margin allowed Wilson to get 16 of his 20 players in the game and seven of them contributed to the scoring. Giles finished with 10, Scoggins 7 and Rainey 5. Holder had 3, Strain 2 and Crosby 1.
Bryant improved to 11-9 overall and 3-1 in conference play going into its game on Monday at North Little Rock.
“It was good to bounce back but, actually, I thought we played a lot harder (at Conway) on Monday night,” Wilson related. “But we did what we needed to do.
“I was real proud of Chase Christie. He’d been working hard in practice and worked himself back up and got him some playing time. He provided us a spark that we needed tonight. We might’ve been in trouble without him. And he wasn’t the only one. We had some other kids step up and play well.
“We’ve got a lot of options,” the coach acknowledged. “The problem with that is, sometimes we don’t get everybody the experience they probably need. But we’re getting now where we’re working harder in practice all the way around. And I’ve told them, whether they play or not, it’s a chance to get better. And that’s what we want to try to do at every practice.”
The Hornets still trailed 9-7 midway through the second quarter. A steal by Rainey led to a pair of free throws by Christie that forged the final tie. After a Cabot miss, Giles found his stroke and drained a 3 to put the Hornets ahead to stay. And when he followed with a steal and layup in the final minute, the lead was 14-9 at the intermission.
The Panthers’ Michael Smith, who finished with a game-high 12 points, opened the second half scoring with a drive to the hoop. And, after a free throw by Crosby, Grant Westlake hit a layup and Cabot was within 15-13.
And the Panthers got a couple of chances to tie or take the lead at that point. After a Bryant miss, Smith had a shot blocked out of bounds by Christie. On the inbounds play, the Hornets forced a five-second call and regained possession. Christie’s baseline jumper extended the lead.
It was 19-13 before Smith hit a free throw and, off a Bryant turnover, the Panthers got a 3 to go, getting it back to 19-17 going into the final 30 seconds of the third quarter. But the Hornets closed with a 7-0 run. Scoggins, off a feed from Christie turned in a three-point play. Moments later, Giles scored then made a steal and layup in the closing seconds to give his team a 26-17 lead.
Smith, again, broke the ice on the fourth quarter but a stickback by Rainey, a steal by Holder and a free throw by Giles extended the margin to 10 with 3:13 left.
The Panthers cut it to 8 but could get no closer. It was 33-23 with 2:20 left. Bryant put the game away with a 6-0 run that started with Scoggins’ layup off an assist from Christie. The Hornets forced a turnover then spread the floor. Rainey and Holder hit free throws then Holder added a layup off a drive-and-dish by Rainey to give Bryant it’s largest lead at 39-23.
HORNETS 39, PANTHERS 23
Score by quarters
Cabot South 5 4 8 6 — 23
BRYANT 2 12 12 13 — 39
PANTHERS 23
York 0-2 0-0 0, Smith 4-11 4-7 12, Lucas 2-5 0-3 4, Penner 0-1 0-0 0, Westlake 2-2 0-0 4, Russell 0-0 0-0 0, Claypool 0-0 0-2 0, Hicks 1-2 0-0 3, Durrkoff 0-0 0-0 0, Goodman 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 9-23 4-12 23.
HORNETS 39
Rainey 2-6 1-2 5, Strain 0-1 2-2 2, Crosby 0-2 1-2 1, Giles 4-10 1-2 10, Reed 0-1 0-0 0, Ezell 0-0 0-0 0, Christie 4-9 3-4 11, Orman 0-0 0-0 0, Nossaman 0-0 0-0 0, Scoggins 2-6 3-4 7, Holder 1-1 1-2 3, Jernigan 0-0 0-0 0, Garrett 0-0 0-0 0, Burnett 0-0 0-0 0, Davis 0-0 0-0 0, Kilgore 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 13-36 12-18 39.
Three-point field goals: Bryant 1-5 (Giles 1-3, Strain 0-1, Christie 0-1), Cabot South 1-6 (Hicks 1-2, Smith 0-3, York 0-1). Rebounds: Bryant 24 (Christie 7), Cabot South 20 (Lucas 11). Turnovers: Bryant 13, Cabot South 23. Team fouls: Bryant 15, Cabot South 17. Fouled out: Cabot South, Westlake.
