CONWAY — Thirty-two and 42 — the Bryant Hornets got stuck at each of those points in their Class 7A State Tournament game against the West Memphis Blue Devils on Thursday.
They were only down 38-32 at the half but West Memphis reeled off the first 10 points of the second half to built a 16-point lead. The Hornets cut that in half, the last time at 50-42 late in the third quarter but before they could get off of 42, the Blue Devils blew the game up with a 16-0 blitz that put them on the road to a 75-50 win.
The game ended the 2013-14 season for the Hornets, who fell to 11-15. The Blue Devils, who compete in the rugged 7A/6A-East Conference, improved to 13-14 and advanced to take on defending State champion North Little Rock today.
“I knew we had a tough row to hoe with our lack of size and our youth,” said Bryant’s third-year head coach Mike Abrahamson, reflecting on the season. “With that just comes ups and downs. Some days they get it and you think they’re turning a corner then the next day they take a step back.
“I do think, on the whole, we’ve got young kids in the program that are bought in and can help us get to the next level of winning 20-plus games and competing with anyone,” he related. “Then, hopefully, by the time they’re juniors and seniors, who knows?
“I think our seniors definitely finished this the right way,” the coach continued. “Their last week of practice, we’ve had really good practices and they’ve been doing the little things.”
The Hornets were without their leading scorer, C.J. Rainey, who missed the team’s last two games with a broken ankle. They started two freshmen, a sophomore and two seniors with no one over 6-3. West Memphis featured 6-5 senior Vakemeyus Davis and strong guards with size. The Blue Devils out-rebounded the Hornets 39-19 including 14 at the offensive end. That helped them convert 30 of 54 shots from the field, 12 more attempts than the Hornets could manage. Bryant knocked down seven 3’s in 21 tries and went 13 of 19 from the free-throw line.
Five of those triples came in the first half including one each by freshmen Desmond Duckworth and Romen Martin during an opening 10-4 surge for the Hornets.
Sparked by a pair of triples by Dannie Gatewood, the Devils pulled ahead 15-14 late in the quarter. Bryant senior Greyson Giles, who led the Hornets with 14 points, hit a free throw to tie it after making a steal. Bryant had two chances to regain the upper hand but an offensive-rebound by Divontae Hyland in the final seconds put West Memphis up 17-15.
The Hornets stuck around in the second quarter but never pulled even again after that.
Davis, who was 8 of 9 from the field — most of that in the second half — scored twice in the early stages of the second quarter to make it 21-15. After Abrahamson called a timeout, however, the Hornets responded. Duckworth canned his second 3 and, after Gary Henderson scored for West Memphis with a 12-foot jumper, sophomore Kevin Hunt bagged a trey to make it 23-21.
Henderson, who finished with 19 points, banked in a jumper but senior Cedarrian Crosby answered off a sweet feed from Martin. Rai East hit two free throws for the Devils when Crosby didn’t get the benefit of the call as he tried to draw a charge. Giles got those two points back at the line after collecting an offensive rebound to make it 27-25.
With 3:41 left, Giles was fouled again but couldn’t get the front end of the one-and-one to go when both shots would’ve tied it again. Henderson made the Hornets pay with a 3.
Giles converted once with 3:12 left in the half to trim it to 4 then Hyland and Hunt traded hoops. Henderson and Giles took turns drained 3’s and it was 35-31 going into the final 1:30 of the half.
Bryant senior Rickey Buchanan blocked a shot by Henderson but Davis got the rebound and got it back to his teammate for a basket. East then traded free throws with Giles to make it 38-32 at the break.
“I thought we stayed with them for a half, really competed hard and played well against a really good team,” Abrahamson said. “We never could stop them but we were scoring in the first half and we were playing pretty good offense. We were making shots the first half, running good offense. We weren’t forcing anything. We were running our stuff. I was real proud of them. We were hanging in there.”
Davis, appropriately enough, had the first basket of the second half. He would finish with a game-high 20 points and 11 rebounds. The West Memphis built a 48-32 lead before Crosby scored on a baseline drive. He then took a charge and, at it eventually led to a basket by Duckworth on a pull-up jumper.
The Hornets forced a turnover and Giles got to the line again for a pair and, when he knocked down two more with 2:40 left in the quarter, the Hornets were back within 48-40.
Gatewood scored off a drive but then Martin made a steal and layup to make it 50-42. Hunt blocked a shot by East but Davis scored off the inbounds play and the game-breaking rampage by the Blue Devils commenced.
It was 56-42 by the end of the quarter then 66-42 before Buchanan converted a pair of free throws with 4:00 left to break the Bryant drought.
“So when we stopped scoring at the start of the second half, the lead ballooned up and the kids start to get tight and tense and force things,” Abrahamson observed. “Guys wanting to bring us back and hit the big shot. You know, they’ll trust me when we’re up 20 and they’ll run our offense. It’s real easy to be committed when you’re up 20. When we’re down 10 or 15, that’s when you need to see it. Once again, we didn’t see it. That doesn’t mean they’re not committed, it’s just where we are as a team and a program right now.
“Their size was just way too much for us to deal with,” he acknowledged. “I really think we did our best. I just want to give them credit because they had the advantage and they exposed it. The games we’ve been able to overcome it, teams didn’t seem to play with as much purpose as West Memphis did.
“We knew going in that they would throw it to those guys (inside) a lot,” he concluded. “That was their plan. We just hoped we could disrupt it enough to go away from it. We also knew that (Henderson) and (Gatewood) were their shooters. It’s hard to take away all of that. We talk about it but it’s a lot easier said than done.”
Gatewood finished with 10, East 9. For Bryant, Giles led the way with 14 points and five rebounds. Hunt had 12 points, Duckworth 8 and Martin 7.
