Hornets knock off NLR on Nordman’s bomb
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).
By ROB PATRICK
BRYANT TIMES
With 6-8 center Andre Clark throwing in 3-pointers, including a pair from just this side of Bauxite, and, despite the fact that the Bryant Hornets were hitting their free throws, the third-ranked North Little Rock Charging Wildcats had rallied to erase what had been an 11-point deficit with 2:36 left to play.
Clark had tied it 57-57 with a tightly defended 3-pointer with :16 left. The Wildcats had forced a held ball with :03.7 to go. Fortunately for the Hornets, it was their turn to control the ball. Coach Mark Smith called a timeout to set up a last-second shot at winning.
When the teams returned to the floor, Smith and assistant Chad Withers noted how North Little Rock lined up to defend and called another timeout to plan accordingly. The coaches noticed that the Wildcats were in a man-to-man defense but not guarding the player that was set to throw the ball in. So they set up a play in which point guard Brandon Cowart broke to the ball then got it back to Chad Knight, who was inbounding the ball. Hopefully, Knight would still be open and could get a good look at the basket for a last-second shot.
But, when the teams returned to the floor, North Little Rock had changed strategy. Still in man, the Wildcats put a defender on the ball to contest Knight’s pass. The Hornets switched the play to “sideline one” placing senior forward Jeremy Nordman on the block opposite the inbounds pass, which was near midcourt. On the other block was senior center Kevin Butzlaff. The play called for Nordman to race toward the near corner and get a screen from Butzlaff to, hopefully, give him room to catch a pass from Knight and launch a shot.
As it turned out, the North Little Rock defender covering Nordman fought through the screen and was right on Nordman’s heels. The pass came in. Nordman got it but turned to find the defender in his face. He pump-faked and took a dribble to his left in hopes of creating space for a shot.
He didn’t get much but it was enough. Nordman’s 3-pointer from the corner got nothing but net and the Hornets had handed the Wildcats their first conference loss, 60-57. The senior was swamped by his teammates and classmates from the student cheering section.
“I was trying to draw the foul,” Nordman said later. “I knew I could get open somehow.”
“Something finally fell our way,” Smith related. “We kept telling the guys, keep playing hard, play through adversity and good things will happen. And we did it and, obviously, it did tonight.
“When a 6-8 kid is dropping in 30-footers . . .,” the coach started with a shake of his head. “But I think justice prevailed. I felt like we deserved to win the game. We played well the whole game. It would’ve been a shame to lose it at the end, not taking anything away from North Little Rock, by any means, because they’re a really good team. But just from the standpoint of how well we played the entire game, to let the last minute and a half dictate who wins and loses . . .”
It was the Hornets third consecutive conference victory. At 3-3 in the league, Bryant, 8-9 overall, slipped into a tie for fourth place with their next outing against third-place Little Rock Central.
“Probably, the difference between tonight and the rest of the games we’ve played is that I don’t think we ever hit that drought where we got up and then we just didn’t score,” Smith observed. “In the second half, we never hit that drought where we went three or four minutes without scoring.
“We executed real well,” he continued. “Everybody cut real hard and we finished our cuts and our shots. And that was a little bit of a difference from Friday at Cabot where we missed a couple of backdoor layups. Tonight, we hit them, we hit the open guy, we saw the open guy, we were patient. We kept running it, running it and running it. And that’s really what you want to do, especially that type of offense, just be patient and continue to cut, continue to move. Somebody will get open sooner or later.”
And, for the most part, the Hornets were tough defensively. North Little Rock only managed 25 points at the end of the third quarter which ended with the Hornets up by 9. Incredibly, the Wildcats scored 32 points in the final period and Bryant 26.
“Our defense did real well,” acknowledged Smith. “Of course, we were out-manned on the boards but for the most part we battled the best that we could.”
The Wildcats only out-rebounded the Hornets 29-27 but 15 of North Little Rock’s caroms came on the offensive end. And Clark, who finished with 21 points and 14 rebounds, had 10 of those.
Bryant got balanced scoring. Nordman led with 12, Cowart and Taylor Masters had 10 each, Zach Lewis 9 and Tim Floyd 7.
North Little Rock only led briefly, 5-3. Masters tied it with a drive up the baseline and, after an exchange of turnovers, Nordman put the Hornets ahead to stay with an offensive rebound and reverse layup with 1:02 left in the first quarter. In the final seconds of the period, Nordman canned a 3 to make it 10-5 at the first break.
Butzlaff hit a jumper to start the second quarter and Bryant led by 7. North Little Rock put together a run at that point and cut it to 14-13. The Wildcats had two chances to tie or take the lead but both times missed front ends at the free-throw line.
It stayed 14-13 until, with 3:05 left in the half, Lewis took a pass from Cowart, scored and drew a foul. The three-point play was countered by a 3 by the Wildcats but they were still unable to take the lead.
Floyd followed his own miss and, after a North Little Rock free throw, Masters, off a feed from Lewis, contributed a three-point play to make it 22-19. Moments later, Hunter Sample drove the baseline and he too came up with a three-point play. Lewis added a free throw after that and Bryant led 26-19 at the half.
The teams traded points in the third quarter. It was 33-25 going into the final minute. Floyd blocked a shot and Lewis was fouled with :07.8 to go. He hit one of his free throws to make it a 9-point game going into the final period.
The lead grew to 11 early in the fourth. Floyd scored over Clark to make it 38-29 and, after a North Little Rock miss, Knight added a pair of free throws to the margin.
The Wildcats cut it to 47-40 with 2:10 left and the Hornets began to spread the floor. Nordman was fouled with 1:29 to play but missed the front end of the bonus opportunity. Butzlaff, however, claimed the rebound and, with 1:23 to go, Cowart was fouled. He connected twice to make it a 9-point lead once again.
But that’s when Clark began his barrage. He hit a 3 and Lewis hit a free throw. Tray Allison hit a pair of free throws but then so did Knight and Bryant led 52-45 with :59 to go.
Clark hit the offensive glass and produced an old-fashioned three-point play, cutting the lead to 4. Knight hit a free throw but Lipscomb bombed a 3 and, with :36 left, the margin was down to 53-51.
Cowart hit two more clutch free throws but Clark somehow threw in a 30-footer to make it 55-54 with :26 left. Again, Cowart stepped to the line and converted twice with :23.7 left but Clark tied it with his third triple in the final 1:30 to set up the dramatic finish.
