Parish’s lone basket on his only shot attempt provides winning margin for Hornets in overtime thriller
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
RUSSELLVILLE — “Yes, sir.”
The Bryant Hornets were trailing 54-53 in overtime to the Camden Fairview Cardinals on Friday night, in the consolation round of the 2009 Cyclone Classic at Russellville High School.
With :47 left, Fairview’s Bobby Easter converted the second of two free throws to give his team the one-point lead. Bryant worked the ball up the floor.
“We held the ball for the last shot,” Marvel recounted. “We took our last timeout (with :15.2 showing) and I asked Brandon (Parish) — he hadn’t shot the ball all night — I said, ‘Brandon, can you dribble to your left?’ All night long, we had been going to the right and I figured he’s the last guy they’re going to cover. He said, ‘Yes, sir.’ And I said, ‘Well, we’re going to clear the left side of the floor and you’re going to dribble in there and make a lay-in.’ He said, ‘Yes, sir.’”
Parish, who hardly even looked at the basket during the contest though he’d gone nearly all the way contenting himself to take care of the ball, set up his teammates and play tough defense, got the ball when play resumed. His teammates all moved to the right side of the floor, leaving Parish working one-on-one down the left side.
The Fairview defender dogged him but Parish got a step. And since the other Cardinals were clinging to the other Hornets expecting Parish to drive and kick, that step was just enough. He took it all the way to the rack where he softly laid a left-handed shot off the glass and in to give his team a 55-54 lead with :05.9 left.
Quinton Motto, Bryant’s tallest player, stepped in front of the Cardinals inbounder. Motto forced him to disregard a long pass over the top. Instead, he tried to get a throw past Motto to one side and the pass went out of bounds as the buzzer sounded.
“It worked out just right,” Marvel said of the final scoring strategy. “And, of course, (assistant) Coach (Jim) Pennington jumped up there and sent old Quinton in there to stand up in front of that kid when he was throwing the ball in. He had to throw it to the side and that kid on the side wasn’t expecting it and right out of bounds it went.”
It was the second win in overtime this season for the Hornets. Their last victory had been a four overtime affair against Wynne at a tournament in Searcy.
They’re now 3-3 going into the consolation final today at 4:30 against the host team, Russellville, a 7A-Central Conference rival.
The Hornets had suffered a letdown after that quadruple OT win but Friday’s victory was further indication they’re working their way back to that standard, though Marvel said they weren’t quite fully back to that level. They had struggled mightily at Lake Hamilton on Tuesday, then played better but faltered late in a loss to Arkadelphia in the first round of the Classic on Thursday.
“They played three pretty good quarters tonight,” the coach said after Friday’s win. “And the overtime. But the third quarter, we just shut down. We just lose our intensity. We had a nice lead there and had a chance to build on it. The next thing you know (Fairview’s players) are going right through the middle of us and scoring and we’re not shooting and we’re turning the ball over. You know, we did everything we could do to self-destruct. Then we got ourselves back together but, towards the end of the game, we started to self-destruct again.
“They seem to want to go out and do something on their own rather than stay in the offense,” he observed. “When they do that, they get out of sync.”
The Hornets needed some dramatic play at the end of regulation to get it to overtime after they’d held as much as a 10-point lead nearly halfway through the third quarter. Senior point guard K Ron Lairy nailed a 3-pointer with :05 left to tie the game at 47. After a timeout with :03.6 showing, the Cardinals were unable to get off a shot to try to win it at the buzzer.
In overtime, Easter, who scored 5 of his 7 points in the extra period but missed three free throws (and wound up 3 for 10 at the line in the game), hit a layup to put his team back on top. But a nice post-up move by J.K. Hampton knotted it up again.
Bryson Fletcher put Fairview back up only to have Lairy hit both ends of a one-and-one to tie it again with 2:22 left. Easter countered with two free throws to make it 53-51.
Renuard, who matched Lairy’s 19 points to lead all scorers, missed a 3-point shot but, at the other end, Derek Brown was cited for a charge and the Hornets had another chance to tie. Hampton, who finished with 14 points, scored down low with :59 left to get that taken care of. Easter was then fouled with :47 left and made the second of his two shots to put his team up by a point.
Renuard and Lairy had nailed 3-pointers to start the game only to have Fairview put together a 10-0 run to take the lead. Hampton got the Hornets back on track with 2:35 left in the first quarter, hitting a fall-away jump-hook. Dominique Reed answered for the Cardinals but when Renuard drained a triple, it was 12-11 going into the second quarter.
Hampton posted up for a bucket then, after L.J. McLaughlin blocked a shot at the other end, Renuard dropped another 3-pointer to make it 16-12.
Fairview cut it to 17-16 but Parish drove and kicked to Lairy for an open 3-ball and, after a Fairview miss, Renuard hit a fall-away jumper from the baseline and was fouled. Converting the free throw made it 23-16 before Reed beat the buzzer with a 3 to keep Fairview within 4 at the break.
The Hornets picked up where they left off early in the third quarter, going inside to Hampton for consecutive buckets to bump the lead to 27-19.
Bryant had a chance to increase the margin after a pair of misses at the other end but a turnover cost them as Cody Harris pulled up and popped a jumper in the lane for the Cardinals.
Free throws continued to be a big difference maker. Renuard got a pair to fall then both Easter and Brown came up empty on two consecutive trips to the line. In turn, Hampton calmly drained a pair, creating the game’s biggest lead at 31-21 with 4:42 left in the third quarter.
The Hornets would finish 15 of 17 from the line to Fairview’s 9 of 20. That and eight 3-pointers in 15 tries compared to 5 of 13 for the Cardinals proved to be the difference for Bryant in light of the fact that Fairview ended up with four more field goals.
The Hornets, however, would score just one point the rest of the third quarter. Fairview put together a run to tie the game at 32 going into the final eight minutes.
And when the Cardinals began the fourth quarter with renewed energy in their press, they scored two quick baskets, both by Fletcher who, along with Reed, led Fairview with 12 points each.
After both teams took timeouts during a series of turnovers, Renuard ended the Hornets’ drought with his fourth 3. It went back and forth after that. A 3-pointer by Lairy and two free throws by Renuard with 3:54 left, had Bryant up 40-39. Easter and Reed responded and had the Cards up 43-40 going into the final two minutes.
Lairy converted four clutch free throws and the Hornets had a 44-43 lead only to have Carlos Frazier score and, after a Bryant turnover with :15 left, he hit a pair of free throws to put his team up 47-44 with :12.3 showing, setting up Lairy’s tying trey.
Asked if the win was one of those that could provide the Hornets with a blueprint for victory, Marvel said he thought the win over Wynne had already done that.
“We thought that was a perfect script for us,” he answered. “We thought that was the best medicine they could have. They stayed focused, they stayed in the game, they made mistakes but they overcame their own mistakes. But then we go back out there the next two games and we didn’t have any intensity at all. The intensity shows up but it shows up then goes away. But it stayed longer tonight and that’s a good sign, I think.”
Yes, sir.
HORNETS 55, CARDINALS 54, OT
Score by quarters
BRYANT 11 12 9 15 8 — 55
Fairview 12 7 13 15 7 — 54
HORNETS 55
Player fg-fga ft-fta reb fls pts
o-d-t
Lairy 4-12 7-8 0-3 3 1 19
Parish 1-1 0-0 1-0 1 1 2
Butzlaff 0-2 0-0 2-2 4 1 0
Hampton 6-10 2-2 2-1 3 5 14
Renuard 5-11 5-5 0-4 4 4 19
Cozart 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Motto 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
McLaughlin0-1 1-2 0-1 1 2 1
Rayburn 0-0 0-0 1-1 2 0 0
Team 0-1 1
Totals 16-38 15-17 6-13 19 14 55
CARDINALS 54
Player fg-fga ft-fta reb fls pts
o-d-t
Gillett 0-3 0-0 2-0 2 1 0
Fletcher 5-6 2-4 4-2 6 2 12
Harris 3-5 0-0 0-0 0 0 7
Elliott 0-0 0-0 1-1 2 0 0
Williams 0-3 0-0 0-1 1 0 0
Reed 5-8 0-0 1-2 3 0 12
Easter 2-6 3-10 4-3 7 3 7
Brown 2-4 0-2 0-1 1 2 6
Frazier 2-6 4-4 2-4 6 3 8
Fisher 1-3 0-0 0-0 0 1 2
Purifoy 0-0 0-0 0-1 1 1 0
Keaton 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Davis 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2 0
Team 3-3 6
Totals 20-45 9-20 17-18 35 15 54
Three-point field goals: Bryant 8-15 (Renuard 4-8, Lairy 4-7), Camden Fairview 5-13 (Brown 2-4, Reed 2-3, Harris 1-1, Gillett 0-1, Fletcher 0-1, Williams 0-1, Fisher 0-1, Keaton 0-1). Turnovers: Bryant 11, Camden Fairview 15.
