By Rob Patrick
WEST MEMPHIS — For those that figured that the Bryant Hornets would go to West Memphis for their preseason scrimmage on Tuesday, Nov. 9, and find themselves trailing by 30 or 40 by halftime, please note:
The halftime score was West Memphis 22, Bryant 20.
And there’s this:[more]
With 3:19 left to play in the game, these Blue Devils, with two returning starters and other contributors back after finishing as runners-up to Little Rock Hall in the Class 6A State tournament last year, and these Hornets, with no returning starters back from a 9-19 team, were even 36-36.
Bryant, however, wound up with three players fouling out and managed just two free throws after that as the Blue Devils escaped with a 47-38 win padded by 9 of 16 free-throw shooting in the fourth quarter.
“We’re proud of our effort but we’re not satisfied,” stated first-year Hornets coach Mike Abrahamson. “We could’ve won this game in my opinion. And we’re going to get better. Tomorrow, it’s back to work.”
Bryant, which played just two players taller than 6-2 — Leon Neale, who was just that, and Quinton Motto, who’s 6-7 — played toe-to-toe with the Blue Devils who started just one player under 6-2 including the 2009-10 Sophomore of the Year in the state, 6-5 Jalen Jackson, and returning starter 6-7 Demarco McVay along with 6-4 Christain Carson.
“That’s a team that you can easily be intimidated by and we talked a lot about that,” Abrahamson noted. “Every one of those guys could dunk it in warm-ups and they were putting on a show on down there. But our guys had some poise and they hung in there and they were tough. We’re young, inexperienced. Just looking at West Memphis you can get intimidated but my guys are good enough to compete and win the game against anyone on our schedule. Poise is something we’ve talked a lot about just because of our inexperience. I think we grew up tonight. We took a step in growing up and maturing tonight. We made some mistakes. We’ve got to get better.”
Arthur Jackson, who was the sixth man for the Blue Devils last season, led all scorers with 15 points. No one else had more than Bryant’s junior Jordan Griffin, who had 9. Brantley Cozart, another junior, added 8 and sophomore Zach Cambron came off the bench to add 7.
The Hornets trailed 36-27 going into the final two minutes of the third quarter. Motto knocked down a 12-foot jumper and the margin was 7 going into the final period.
And Motto’s bucket started a 9-0 run for Bryant. To start the fourth quarter, Griffin hit one of two free throws and, after a West Memphis turnover, Cozart fed Cambron for a basket inside. Another Blue Devils miscue was cashed in by Cozart himself. He knocked down a 3 to trim the lead to one.
Both teams had chances to change the score. Jalen Jackson misfired on a trey but the Hornets committed a turnover. At the other end, however, when Jalen Jackson attacked the basket, Cambron was there to take one of three charges absorbed by Bryant player. (The others were taken by Houston Garner, who came up with a bloody nose for his trouble, and Eric Moore.)
Griffin hit a free throw to tie the game but missed a second try that would’ve put the Hornets ahead. Moore followed up with a steal and, following his own miss, Motto was fouled with 3:19 to go. But the junior post player couldn’t get the front end to go and West Memphis came flying back down the floor. Tony Jefferies hit a pull-up jumper to put the Blue Devils back on top to stay.
The Hornets turned the ball over and Dominick Tolbert was fouled on a drive to the hoop, Moore’s fifth. After a timeout by Abrahamson, Tolbert converted both shots.
Bryant had two chances to answer but a turnover and forced shot resulted. Tobert added a free throw to make it 41-36 with 1:05 left.
Motto was fouled on the rebound and converted twice at the other end to make it a one-trip game, 41-38. But free throws by Arthur Jackson and Tolbert in the final minute pushed the margin out to 9.
“We were in foul trouble all night long and we couldn’t get our big bodies in there — I say ‘big’ as a relative term,” Abrahamson mentioned. “Zach Cambron did step up, a sophomore. He surprised us tonight. He played well.
“West Memphis shot a lot of free throws and we had a couple of panic plays there with about a minute and a half left,” he noted. “We threw the ball away and I was trying to call a timeout. The referee just couldn’t blow the whistle fast enough. That happened twice. That’s why we keep preaching poise, poise, poise. We will get better at that.
“The toughness was there, the effort was there, the intention of being committed to what our program is all about was there and I’m proud of them,” the coach said of his team.
That poise helped early. West Memphis scored the game’s first 6 points but the Hornets would not let the Blue Devils get away. Griffin hit two free throws and followed those up with a 3 to trim it to 6-5. McVay got a stickback but Moore answered inside. Another offensive rebound basket, this time by Jeffries made it 10-7 but Cozart flushed a trey and it was tied at 10 with 1:16 left in the quarter.
Jeffries added two more baskets before the period was over and Arthur Jackson’s first hoop opened the second stanza but, again, the Hornets wouldn’t relent. Kyle Nossaman, one of just two seniors on the team (along with Garner), drained a 10-footer then Cozart made a steal and layup to trim it to 16-14.
Julius Barton, another 6-7 post player in off the bench, hit a free throw but Garner answered with a bucket off the offensive glass and the Hornets with within one.
The Blue Devils pushed out to a 22-16 edge but Nossaman scored off an inbounds play. With time running out the Blue Devils’ Greg Motley rejected a shot by Nossaman and added a obscene taunt resulting in a technical foul. With :02.5 on the clock, Griffin stepped up and buried both shots to make it 22-20 at the half.
The Blue Devils again made a bid to make it a one-side game as they started the second half with an 8-0 run which produced their largest lead of 30-20. But a three-point play by Cambron, as he followed his own miss, got the Hornets going again.Jalen Jackson answered but Garner knocked down a shot over a taller player inside. Cambron hit the offensive glass and was fouled with 4:18 left in the period. His free throws whittled the margin to 32-27.
Jalen Jackson’s reverse layup and Arthur Jackson’s layup off a steal produced the 36-27 advantage that the Hornets erased to set up the final scenario.
Bryant will start its season in earnest on Thursday, Nov. 18, when they travel to Hendrix College in Conway to play Fort Smith Southside.
BLUE DEVILS 47, HORNETS 38
Score by quarters
BRYANT 10 10 9 9 — 38
West Memphis 14 8 14 11 — 47
HORNETS 38
Name fg-fga ft-fta reb fls pts
o-d-t
S.Davis 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Garner 2-4 0-0 1-2 3 2 4
Neale 0-3 0-0 1-2 3 1 0
Moore 1-3 0-0 0-1 1 5 2
Motto 1-7 2-3 3-5 8 5 4
Nossaman 2-5 0-0 0-4 4 4 4
J.Griffin 1-7 6-8 0-1 1 4 9
Cozart 3-7 0-0 0-2 2 5 8
Trudell 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 0
Wilson 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Cambron 2-5 3-3 2-2 4 1 7
Team 2-2 4
Totals 12-43 11-14 9-21-30 30 38
BLUE DEVILS 47
Name fg-fga ft-fta reb fls pts
o-d-t
Tolbert 0-3 6-9 0-0 0 0 6
A.Jackson 5-8 5-8 0-5 5 3 15
J.Jackson 2-7 2-4 0-1 1 5 6
Carson 0-4 1-6 4-5 9 4 1
McVay 4-8 0-0 2-6 8 2 8
Jeffries 4-7 0-2 3-3 6 1 8
Wiley 0-1 2-2 0-0 0 0 2
Barton 0-0 1-2 0-2 2 0 1
L.Griffin 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Stewart 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Motley 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0
Jones 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Team 4-0 4
Totals 15-41 17-33 13-22 35 16 47
Three-point field goals: Bryant 3-15 (Cozart 2-5, J.Griffin 1-3, Neale 0-2, Nossaman 0-2, Garner 0-1, Trudell 0-1, Wilson 0-1), West Memphis 0-6 (J.Jackson 0-2, A.Jackson 0-1, McVay 0-1, L.Griffin 0-1, Motley 0-1). Turnovers: Bryant 18, West Memphis 16. Technical foul: West Memphis, Motley.
