Photos by Rick Nation and Kevin Nagle
The last time the Bryant Hornets had lost was at Benton on Jan. 10. The last time the Benton Panthers had lost it was at J.A. Fair on Jan. 14. So, when the two teams met at the Hornets Nest on Wednesday night, something had to give — Bryant’s six-game winning streak or Benton’s five-game winning streak — and, to the winner, sole possession of first place in the South Conference.
Cedarrian Crosby drives to the hoop. (Photo by Kevin Nagle)
The Panthers never trailed.
After an opening run of 15-4, Benton’s lead was never less than 8 on the way to a 73-60 win that improved its overall record to 15-6 and league mark to 7-1 going into Friday’s home rematch with Fair.
Bryant, 10-9 and 6-2, will try to get started on a new streak on Friday in a tough place to play, McFadden Gym at Pine Bluff High School. The Hornets edged the Zebras, 42-41, at home on Jan. 14 to start their previous skein. That was the first of three one-point wins in the run for the Hornets. They also nicked Fair, 44-43, and escaped El Dorado, 60-59, so there hasn’t always been a lot of room for error. But the Hornets had won nonetheless with patient offense and a lot of hustle and grit on defense.
Head coach Mike Abrahamson didn’t feel like his team followed their formula for success against Benton.
“You’ve got to give them credit,” he said of the Panthers. “They won the game and they beat us. They really played well.
“Much like the El Dorado game, offensively we weren’t being us,” he asserted. “We were probably shooting it too quick. We weren’t changing sides of the floor. People weren’t touching it. We weren’t cutting aggressively. We weren’t being aggressive but the first glimmer of daylight we were putting it up. That’s not what we’re looking for. But that’s the way we played a lot against El Dorado and we got lucky to pull that one out. It caught up with us tonight.
“It’s one of those things, as a coach, that you can tell them, ‘I can see this coming. If we don’t change it, this is what’s going to happen.’ But it’s hard to get through to kids when they’ve won six straight that they’re not doing — it kind of creeps in there. It happens slowly but I could notice it.”
The Panthers were led by Josh Bowling’s 18 points. Cason Maertens added 16 and Luke Vincent 10. The Hornets got 17 from Greyson Giles and 17 more from Romen Martin. C.J. Rainey finished with 11, Kevin Hunt and Cedarrian Crosby 7 each.
Romen Martin tries to drive around Benton’s Blake Bowlin. (Photo by Rick Nation)
“We could not do to them what we wanted to do to them,” Abrahamson stated. “We were playing our zone in the first quarter. We couldn’t clog it up and keep them from getting in the lane and making plays with a shot or a kick-out.
“Then when we went to pressure them to try to wear them down, we wouldn’t quite pick them up all the way at the baseline or we’d let them pass it where they wanted to pass it,” he added. “We’d try to guard the ball and let a guy go coast to coast and get a layup.
“We haven’t played that way defensively in a long time and it’s pretty disappointing,” the coach related. “It was just strange. I didn’t feel like we had any urgency defensively but yet when we were on offense everybody wanted to be the one to hit the shot to make the crowd go crazy. It’s very backwards and we got what we deserved. I give (Benton) credit. They deserved it. We didn’t lose the game. They beat us. They made the plays. They out-played us. They were better than us.”
Martin kept the Hornets in the game early as he scored 15 of his 17 points in the first half. He hit a pair of free throws with 5:44 left in the opening quarter but, before he hit a 3 at the 2:31 mark, the Panthers reeled off 9 points. Maertens scored inside then Tarek Beaugard canned a 3. Beaugard made a steal that Vincent cashed in and, when Bowling sank a pair of free throws at the 3:49 mark it was 15-4.
Behind Martin’s 3 and a pair of free throws by Giles, it was 17-8 going into the final seconds of the first quarter. But Maertens hit a 3 at the buzzer to make it a 12-point game.
Martin’s second 3 of the game opened the second quarter. Blake Bowlin scored inside for Benton then Martin drained his third troika to make it 22-14. He followed up with a steal but he couldn’t get his layup on the other end to fall.
C.J. Rainey pulls up for a jumper in the lane. (Photo by Kevin Nagle)
Vincent hustled down court for a layup and, after Hunt grabbed an offensive rebound and scored to make it 24-16, Maertens connected on a 3 to make it 27-16.
The lead was never less than double digits after that. Giles hit a free throw to cut it to 10 but back-to-back hoops by Bowling extended the margin.
Rainey countered with a free throw and Crosby made a steal only to miss at the rim as well. Moments later, Bowling was canning a 10-footer to push the lead to 15.
Benton led 37-22 at the half.
Giles, who had 2 points in the first half, erupted for 14 in the third quarter but the Panthers responded every time the margin would be whittled to 10.
Maertens hit a free throw to start the quarter but Giles drove for a deuce then knocked down a 12-footer. Maertens scored again but Giles drained a 3 to make it 40-29.
Bowling led a surge to re-establish the 15-point lead. It was 50-35 after a Beaugard layup with 2:12 left in the period. Giles answered with a pair of free throws then cashed in a Panthers turnover with a 3 to make it 50-40.
But layups by Beaugard and Vincent followed. Crosby’s drive up the baseline beat the buzzer so it was 54-42 going into the final eight minutes.
Rainey trimmed it to 10 one last time with the first basket of the fourth quarter. Clay Anderson’s three-point play was countered by a driving jumper by Martin to made it 57-46.
The Hornets had a chance to cut the lead to single digits after Maertens misfired but a turnover cost them. Bowling got a dunk, Anderson made a steal and a layup then Bowling scored off another Bryant turnover. With 4:47 left, the Panthers had their largest lead, 63-46.
A free throw by Desmond Duckworth started once last threat by the Hornets. Maertens got that point back at the line but Rainey hit a 3 and Hunt turned in a three-point play to make it 64-53.
After a timeout, however, the Panthers proceeded to push the lead back to 16 going into the final minute.
