Vilonia girls clinch league title at Little Rock Parkview

The Parkview boys won on a buzzer-beater

By Jeff Halpern | Photos by Braden Botts  

LITTLE ROCK — The Vilonia Lady Eagles had to overcome a lot to win the 5A-Central Conference title Tuesday night at Ripely Arena. 

The No. 15 Lady Eagles (24-4, 14-1) won despite losing the rebounding battle 30-22 and ending up with 20 turnovers to Parkview’s nine and having to overcome 26 points and 7 rebounds by Tyra Robinson. 

In the end, they outscored the Lady Patriots (20-7, 12-3) 7-1 over the final 1:08 to pull out the victory. 

“I think you can see what this meant to us,” said Vilonia head coach Jeremy Simon, whose players squirted him with water bottles after the game. “We’ve been working hard all year on it. We struggled all year with teams with a good post player. She [Robinson] did an amazing job rebounding the ball and putting it back in. Bailey Sims (12 points and 11 rebounds) did everything she could do to keep her off the boards.”

Robinson gave the Lady Patriots the lead at 53-52 when she scored with 1:08 left. After Madison Lynn Mannion and Breighah Bailey missed threes for both teams, Sims was fouled with 37.7 seconds left and made both free throws to put the Lady Eagles up 54-53.

Parkview had another chance to take the lead, but Bailey’s pass inside to Naomi Sharpley resulted in a turnover and Sharpley fouled Kinley Mears with 24.4 seconds left. Mears hit both free throws to make it 56-53.

After Howard called timeout with 22.1 seconds left, Alexis Heston fouled Jasmine Davis with 19.0 seconds left. Davis made 1-of-2 free throws to close it to 56-54.

After a timeout by Simon, Sidni Middleton was fouled by Jada Page and made both free throws to make it 58-54.

Heston made 1-of-2 free throws with 7 seconds left to finish the scoring.

The Lady Patriots, who were down 50-44 midway through the fourth quarter, went on a 9-2 run to take the lead with Robinson, Davis, Page and Deanna Kamanga scoring during that stretch. The Lady Patriots had to make the run with Robinson getting called for a push off at the 3:27 mark, which was her fourth foul of the game.

Simon and Parkview head coach Lahoma Howard said that was a turning point.

“That changed the game because they had all the momentum at that point,” said Simon. “We had no answer to stop them. “When that ball was in the air, it’s like an entry pass for her. It was automatic. She’s catching it too low.”

Howard said the call was big, but she wishes the officials were consistent in calling contact on both ends of the floor and said it was something her team had to play through.

While the Patriots dominated the glass and turnover battles, they went 0-for-18 on three pointers.

“They couldn’t hit a three,” Simon said. “They got some girls who are good shooters and very capable of hitting, but they are so good at rebounding. Had we rebounded well, we might have won in double digits. We couldn’t keep them off the boards.”

Howard said, “We couldn’t make that key baskets down the stretch. We got to make those outside shots when they give them to us.”

Middleton led the Lady Eagles with 18 points and made 6-of-8 free throws.

Page had 13 points for Parkview while Kamanga had 8 points and 9 rebounds.

In the end, Simon couldn’t have been more proud of how his team played with a conference title at stake.

“When they beat us (54-51 on Jan. 24), we knew we had to come here and that was a large task,” said Simon. “We had been preparing for a matchup zone and they came out man to man. We had to scratch all that prep work. We played against a lot of man to man, but I don’t know if we played against that much pressure. The girls did a good job of handling it and making free throws down the stretch. We changed our defense up 15 times this game to try and stop them. I don’t know if we found one that worked.”

Despite the loss, Howard said it’s time to focus on the state tournament.

LR PARKVIEW 49, VILONIA 47 (BOYS)

Nathaniel Coley’s buzzer-beating jumper lifted the Patriots (15-13, 9-4 5A-Central) past Vilonia (21-8, 9-4).

After Coley made a jumper with 42 seconds left to tie the game at 47-47, Vilonia tried to set up a winning shot. Josh Lawrence and Cade Smithhart had chances, but Khylin Porchia ended up with the rebound and got the ball midcourt before Parkview head coach Scotty Thurman called a timeout with 4.2 seconds left to set up the winning shot.

Drake Marbley took the ball out of bounds and got it into Coley, who let it fly from the left side as time expired.

“We wanted to get it to him a little sooner,” said Thurman on the wining shot. “We had another decoy with Dallas (Thomas) and was come out on the other side, but he couldn’t get there.”

Coley led the Patriots with 19 points, with 11 coming after halftime.

Vilonia head coach Troy Campbell said it was a tough loss in a state-tournament environment.

“It’s a great game,” said Campbell. “They are a tough team. This is a tough place to play. It was a tough shot. Our guy was there and we were on the wrong end of it.”

Lawrence led the Eagles with 17 points and Dashun Spence added 15 points and 7 rebounds in the loss.

“It is a huge win for us. We’ve had a up and down season all year and we have everyone back and trying to get ready for state playoffs,” said Thurman.