Northside advances following victory against Bentonville West

By Jeff Halpern I Photos by Tommy Land

LITTLE ROCK — The Fort Smith Northside Lady Bears might not have earned style points, but they got a 56-43 first-round victory over Bentonville West in the Class 6A State Tournament at Gryphon Arena.

The Lady Bears (22-7) led 11-6 after the first quarter in which they committed seven fouls and point guard Ashya Harris committed two of them, forcing her to sit the final 3:33 of the quarter. They shot 5-of-13, including 0-for-4 on three-pointers.

However, their defense held Bentonville West to 2-of-9 shooting in the opening quarter. As the game went on, the Lady Bears started to seize control, leading 24-14 at halftime and 43-30 after three quarters and held off a couple rallies by the Wolverines in the second half.

As a result, they will meet Bentonville, the No. 2 seed from the 6A-West Conference at 7 p.m. Friday.

Bentonville West ends the season at 16-11.

“Give Bentonville West a lot of credit,” said Northside Coach Rickey Smith. “They controlled the tempo, got a lot of rebounds and frustrated us. We made a lot of mistakes, but you have to give them credit.”

Khassidy Warr, who missed the the Lady Bears’ season finale at Little Rock Central on Saturday with a sprained ankle, lifted the Lady Bears with three 3-pointers in the second quarter, pushing their lead to 21-10 at the 3:06 mark of the second quarter.

Zoey Breshears made her first three-pointer of the game to put Northside up 24-14.

“Khassidy Warr missed our last game and she made a difference tonight,” said Smith. “When we started making the three-pointers, that opened things up.”

Warr, who led the Lady Bears with 18 points, made a 3-pointer to open the second half. Breshears, who finished with 14 points, made 3 three-pointers in the second half to finish with14 points. Her first one of the half came after Bentonville West closed to 31-22 with 5:02 left in the third quarter.

The Lady Wolverines closed to 36-30 with less than two minutes left in the quarter on a three-pointer by Laynee Tapp and a basket by Marybeth Dyson, but Northside’s Karys Washington made two free throws at the 1:32 mark and scored on a feed from Yonni Releford to make it 40-30. Releford added a free throw with 43.5 seconds left and Warr made two free throws with 26.6 seconds left to make it 43-30 going into the fourth quarter.

Bentonville West closed to 43-35 early in the fourth quarter when Savannah Rangel made a three-pointer and Ivorionna Johnson scored off a turnover, but baskets by Breshears and Releford pushed the lead to 47-35.

Northside pushed it to 53-36 with 3:00 left on two three-pointers by Breshears before coasting in with the victory.

Tapp and Dyson led Bentonville West with 10 points.

“We got out of here with a win, but we need to play a lot better if we’re going to stay here for a while,” Smith said.

LR CENTRAL 52, FAYETTEVILLE 33

Jordan Marshall scored 12 points to lead Little Rock Central (20-9) to a blowout victory over Fayetteville in first round action of the Class 6A state tournament.

Marshall had 10 of her points in the first half as the Lady Tigers led 14-6 after the first quarter, 29-17 at halftime and 42-26 after three quarters. 

Ashlyn Kimble finished with 8 points for the Lady Tigers.

Central advances to meet No. 1 seed Conway at 4 p.m. Friday.

Wynter Beck led Fayetteville (11-17) with 12 points.