Turning the tables: Little Rock Central stuns No. 1 Conway in Class 6A girls basketball state tournament

By Jeff Halpern I Photos by Tommy Land

LITTLE ROCK — Little Rock Central pulled off the biggest upset of the Class 6A state tournament on Friday. 

Central (21-9) which had been blown out by Conway (28-2) 86-29 on Jan. 21 and 70-28 on Feb. 15, eliminated the No. 1-ranked Lady Wampus Cats 66-60 at Gryphon Arena. The loss was Conway’s first since a 73-72 loss to national power Duncanville, Texas, at its Christmas tournament on Dec. 30.

“We’re the underdogs. We had nothing to lose,” said Central Coach Marlon Williams. “We went out there and let everything out.”

The Lady Tigers, who will meet Fort Smith Northside in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Saturday, were led by Jordan Marshall, who had 24 points and 10 rebounds. Aven Sasser had 14 points and 6 rebounds. Central defeated Northside 50-43 Saturday. Northside won 52-45 on Jan. 7.

Central shot 20-of-47 from the floor, including 5-of-9 on three-pointers. They shot 18-of-28 from the foul line, held a 31-25 rebounding edge and overcame 21 turnovers.

Conway shot 23-of-59 from the floor, including 2-of-15 on three-pointers. Chloe Clardy led the Lady Wampus Cats with 24 points, shooting 9-of-22 from the floor, including 1-of-8 on three-pointers. Savannah Scott was held to 5 points and 7 rebounds. Jaiden Thomas had 11 points and six rebounds.

“Central played really well,” said Conway head coach Ashley Hutchcraft said. “We played not to lose and afraid to win. When you’re 28-1, there comes a great deal of pressure. Hats off to them. They played with a lot of confidence and good luck to them the rest of the way.”

The signs were evident that this game was not going to resemble Conway’s two blowouts over Central.

Despite turning the ball over six times in the first quarter and losing Kelsey Johnson for an extended time because of three fouls, Central, shot 7-of-14 in the opening quarter while taking a 16-10 lead. Jordan Marshall led the way with six points. Clardy got off two a slow start, shooting 1-of-5 in the opening quarter. Scott had 1 points while shooting 0 for 4.

“They played really well lately, and we hadn’t played well as of late,” said Hutchcraft. “We struggled to beat Bryant and then had a week off. They had a game under their belt to get rid of the jitters. We knew if we came out and hit them early, we’d be ok, but that wasn’t the case."

Conway, which trailed 17-10, scored eight consecutive points to lead 18-17. Thomas made a 3-pointer, Clardy scoring off a turnover, Kalayna King making 1-of-2 free throws and Scott rebounding a miss by Thomas.

The game stayed back-and-forth for the rest of the quarter with Ashlyn Kimble making a three pointer at the buzzer to tie the game at 26-26.

Conway scored the first eight points of third quarter to lead 34-26. King scored off a turnover, Clardy scored on an inbounds pass, Kamille Brown drove to make it 32-26, Clardy scored off turnover to make it 34-26.

The lead stayed at 8, 39-31 before Marshall scored scored six consecutive points for Central to make it 39-37.

Conway answered when Alexis Cox rebounded Scott’s miss to make it 41-37 and Clardy had a three-point play to make it 44-39.

Trailing 46-41 at the start of the fourth quarter, Day-Davis made a three-pointer and scored off a turnover to tie the game at 46-46.

Tied 50-50 with 5:50 to play, Kimble made a free throw to give Central the lead for good at 51-50. Marshall made two free throws with 4:58 left to make it 53-50. Lillian Jackson rebounded her own miss after a turnover to make it 55-50.

Clardy had a basket to close it to 55-52 and made 1-of-2 at the foul line with 3:17 left to make it 55-53.

Sasser rebounded Marshall’s miss to make it 57-53.

After Conway called a 30-second timeout with 2:30 left, Clardy made 1-of-2 at the lie to cut it to 57-54, but Marshall made 1-of-2 at the line at the 2:12 mark to make it 58-54. Marshall added two more free throws at the 1:46 mark to make it 60-56.

After Kaiden Beckwith drove to make it 60-56, Marshall scored with the shot clock running down to make it 62-56 and Sasser scored off a turnover to make it 64-56 with 49 seconds left.

After Conway called timeout, Beckwith drove again to make it 64-58. After a held ball gave Conway possession with 33.2 seconds left, Thomas stepped on the line when receiving the inbounds pass.

After Kimble missed two free throws, Clardy rebounded a miss to make it 64-60 with 6.5 seconds left and the game was over. Jackson made two free throws to close out the scoring and Central had a big celebration on the court.

“This is a program changer,” said Williams. “We stayed tough out there when things went against us and we believed.”

When asked how his team will respond for Saturday’s semifinal game, Williams said, “It’s going to be tough. We’re going to celebrate and then get focused.”

When asked what she told her team afterwards, Hutchcraft said, “There’s not much to say.”

FORT SMITH NORTHISDE 52, BENTONVILLE 38

Erianna Gooden scored 25 points and had eight rebounds to lead Northside (23-7) into Saturday’s semifinal game against Little Rock Central.

Gooden made 9-of-12 free throws, including 5-of-6 in the third fourth quarter to help the defending state champions earn another game in the state tournament. 

“I thought our kids played better tonight,” said Northside Coach Rickey Smith. “This is rewarding especially since we had to replace four starters off last year’s team.”

In addition to Gooden, Yonni Releford had eight points and four rebounds.

Northside led 9-8 after the first quarter, 22-17 at halftime and went on a 11-2 run to open the third quarter. Gooden keyed the run with five points, while Releford had 3 and Khassiday Warr had a three-pointer.

Jada Brown led Bentonville (19-7) with 16 points and five rebounds.

After seeing Central upset Conway, Smith said, “Central beat us last Saturday. They have talent. It’s not a fluke they beat Conway.”