Photos by Kevin Nagle
The payback tour continued Friday night. This time, it was the Sheridan Yellowjackets’ turn.
Rickey Buchanan scores inside for the Hornets. (Photo by Kevin Nagle)
Through the first half of the South Conference double round-robin schedule, the Bryant Hornets got on a roll and won six games in a row, mostly against rivals that were much more physically imposing like the Yellowjackets with their front line of 6-7 Austen Theiss, 6-4 Dylan Morris and 6-5 Griffin Smith. Bryant went to Sheridan in the midst of that streak and handed the Jackets a 54-36 thumping.
But on the second run through the league, Sheridan, like J.A. Fair and Pine Bluff before it, turned the tables on the Hornets.
Outscoring Bryant 23-13 in the fourth quarter, the Jackets turned a 5-point game into a 58-43 win, handing the Hornets their fourth straight loss and third in a row against teams they’d beaten before.
“Teams are playing us better in the second round,” commented Bryant coach Mike Abrahamson. “To be honest, that’s because we were so prepared the first round. We’re just as prepared the next time but they’re more prepared than they were.
“You know I think we out-work a lot of programs and I’m proud of that,” he continued. “I think that gets us wins that we normally wouldn’t get if we just lined up and played, just showed up and played without knowing anything. The second go-round, teams are preparing a lot harder than they did the first time and they’re wanting to get us back, so their kids are more focused. Then natural ability takes over, natural size and natural athleticism. Things that we’re at a disadvantage in tend to take over in those moments. But we’re going to keep trying.”
Desmond Duckworth splits a pair of Sheridan defenders on a drive to the basket. (Photo by Kevin Nagle)
The loss dropped the Hornets to 10-12 overall and 6-5 in the South Conference going into their final three regular-season games. They go to Texarkana on Tuesday then host Lake Hamilton for Senior Night on Friday, Feb. 21, before wrapping it up at El Dorado on Feb. 25.
“Nothing went right tonight,” said Abrahamson. “We couldn’t make layups, couldn’t make free throws, couldn’t make 3’s. (Sheridan) seemingly got every loose ball. Rebounding was already going to be a problem. We couldn’t press them, couldn’t zone them, couldn’t half-court man them, couldn’t trap.
“We tried to pressure a little bit early just to get our energy going,” he noted. “The last three games, we played our zone in the first quarter and gave up 20 points a game in the first quarter. So we tried something new and it didn’t work either.
“We’re trying to stick with what we do but, at the same time, trying to adjust and tweak things, to get us to play better,” the coach mentioned. “We’ve got to get back to simplifying the game. Some of our guys that were giving us big production are — I don’t know if they’re hitting a wall or if they are now forcing it a little bit more instead of doing what they were doing earlier. We’ve got some guys that are now thinking out there, offensively, instead of reacting.
“But, you know, the same team is in the locker room — the same guys, the same character, the same good people, the same hard-working kids. We’ve got to try to tap back into what got us going in the first round. I believe we can get it back going again the way we had it.”
Despite the struggles early in the game, the Hornets were nip-and-tuck with the Jackets in the first half. Bryant led 4-3 on a stickback by Rickey Buchanan and two free throws by Greyson Giles but, sparked by a dunk from Theiss, who finished the night with 17 points and 17 rebounds, Sheridan built a 10-4 lead. Kevin Hunt’s jumper got Bryant back on track and after Morris and the Hornets C.J. Rainey traded baskets it was 12-8 going into the second period.
Kevin Hunt takes a jumper. (Photo by Kevin Nagle)
Desmond Duckworth knocked down a 3, Rainey made a steal and a layup, and the Hornets had the lead 13-12. The lead seesawed for a while. Brodie Richardson hit a layup but Rainey, who led all scorers with 20 points, drained an eight-footer. Morris threw down a dunk off a feed from Richardson but Giles scored off a drive to put the Hornets up 17-16.
Richardson’s baseline drive put Sheridan back on top and it was 19-17 going at the half.
When Hunt grabbed an offensive rebound and scored and, moments later, Buchanan grabbed the carom off a blocked shot and stuck it back in, the Hornets were up 21-19 less than three minutes into the second half.
It was then the Smith got open 3 to put Sheridan back up. Rainey’s free throws returned the edge to Bryant but when Chris Whitman hit a layup off a feed from Morris to make it 24-23, the Jackets had taken the lead for good.
Smith canned another 3 forcing Abrahamson to call a timeout. When play resumed, the Hornets turned it over on a five-second call on an inbounds play. The official set the ball down as the Hornets broke their huddle a little late. The Hornets rushed onto the court to try to get it in but Sheridan put on some pressure to make it a little more difficult and Bryant was unable to get it in in time.
Whitman took advantage with a driving jumper. Smith made a steal and Morris knocked down a short jumper to make it 31-23.
Greyson Giles battles Sheridan’s 6-7 Austen Theiss (21) for a rebound as Romen Martin (22) looks on. (Photo by Kevin Nagle)
Spurred by Rainey and Giles, Bryant was able to cut the lead to 33-30 going into the final seconds of the half. Jessie Feathers, however, beat the clock for Sheridan, making it 35-30 going into the fourth.
“They shot better,” noted Abrahamson. “The last time we played them, they were 0 for 19 on 3-pointers. They hit a couple tonight. And we didn’t shoot well.”
Indeed, Sheridan shot just under 50 percent from the field including 2 of 12 from 3-point range. Meanwhile, Bryant was 17 of 53 (32 percent) for the game including a frustrating 1 of 22 from beyond the 3-point arc. And they converted 8 of 15 free throws.
“When you score, your defense gets better,” Abrahamson said. “When you don’t score, your defense naturally weakens for most teams. That’s just kind of the way it goes.
“Last time, we jumped out to a lead and tonight we didn’t,” he added. “That’s a good team. They’re huge and they’re all seniors and they played like it.
“But we’re at the end of the third quarter and we’re only down 35-30. I’m thinking, ‘My gosh, nothing’s going our way — nothing — and we’re only down 5.’”
And when Romen Martin started the fourth quarter with a pair of free throws, it was a 3-point game.
But a flying offensive rebound dunk by Whitman, the Sheridan point guard, started the Yellowjackets late push to break the game open. On defense, they set up in a box-and-one with Richardson shadowing Rainey while everyone else zoned up. The Hornets’ senior still scored 7 points down the stretch but only Cedarrian Crosby and Giles added to that, each with 2 points.
On the way to extending the lead, Theiss blew a dunk but grabbed the rebound, scored and was fouled for a three-point play. Whitman, who finished with 15 points, scored a pair of baskets to produce the first double-digit lead at 44-34.
After Crosby scored inside off a nice feed from Giles, Feathers hit two free throws and followed up with a layup as the Jackets burned the Bryant press. Rainey hit a free throw then Smith missed the front end of a one-and-one. But with four Hornets and one Sheridan player along with Smith along the lane, Smith was able to rebound his own miss and score.
Eventually, the Yellowjackets led by as much as 17 — a run punctuated by Theiss’ second dunk of the game.
YELLOWJACKETS 58, HORNETS 43
Score by quarters
Sheridan 12 7 16 23 — 58
BRYANT 8 9 13 13 — 43
YELLOWJACKETS (10-12, 4-5) 58
Whitman 6-13 3-4 15, Feathers 3-6 2-2 8, Smith 3-6 0-1 8, Morris 3-6 0-0 6, Theiss 7-16 3-6 17, Richardson 2-3 0-0 4, Wilson 0-0 0-0 0, Stone 0-0 0-0 0. Total 24-50 8-13 58.
HORNETS (10-12, 6-5) 43
Rainey 8-17 4-8 20, Hunt 2-8 0-0 4, Martin 0-8 2-2 2, Giles 3-10 2-3 8, Buchanan 2-2 0-0 4, Duckworth 1-4 0-0 3, Croom 0-0 0-0 0, Crosby 1-3 0-0 2, Strain 0-0 0-0 0, Peters 0-1 0-2 0. Totals 17-53 8-15 43.
Three-point field goals: Bryant 1-22 (Duckworth 1-2, Giles 0-6, Martin 0-6, Hunt 0-4, Rainey 0-3, Crosby 0-1), Sheridan 2-12 (Smith 2-5, Morris 0-3, Whitman 0-2, Feathers 0-2). Rebounds: Bryant 25 (Martin 5, Crosby 5), Sheridan 43 (Theiss 17, Morris 10). Turnovers: Bryant 14, Sheridan 17. Team fouls: Bryant 16, Sheridan 13. Fouled out: Bryant, Crosby.
