Blaise Smith poured in 25 points to lead the Bryant White Hornets eighth grade team of Bryant Middle School to a 50-25 win over the Bryant Blue Hornets of Bethel Middle School on Thursday night at the Bryant Middle gym.
“Blaise Smith had an unbelievable night,” said Bryant White coach Heath Long. “It was the best individual performance one of my players has ever had and one of the most efficient performances you will ever see. It was not selfish at all. He let the game come to him.”
White also got 9 points from Kajuan Robinson and 6 from Daelin Drake.
Blue was paced by Randy Thomas’ 11 points. Henry Terry added 6 and Tyler O’Neal 3.
“Bryant Middle did a good job of playing their zone, forcing us to shoot the ball from the outside,” noted Blue coach Dominic Lincoln. “And when we did shoot, they did a good job of controlling the glass.”
Bryant led 14-8 after a quarter and 28-18 at the half. But White then outscored Blue 17-2 in the third quarter to take control of the game.
“I thought we answered the bell the first half and kept it close being only down 10,” Lincoln related. “Second half, we didn’t respond well in the third quarter. We did a good job causing problems in our full-court press but couldn’t score points in order to set up the press.”
Long added, “We executed pretty well and played hard as always. There were some times that we struggled a little bit with their pressure but we will work on that.
“It was a good win and we will see them again in February,” he concluded.
Bryant White, now 6-1, concluded its pre-Christmas schedule. Next up will be a game against Conway White on Jan. 12, 2015.
Blue, now 4-3, is set to conclude it’s pre-holiday action on Monday against Russellville in conjunction with freshman games at the Bryant Middle School gym.
The rematch between the two teams is Feb. 5, at Bethel.
