Arkansas high school girls basketball state tournament: Little Rock Central stuns Fort Smith Northside in 6A quarterfinals

The No. 4-seeded Tigers eliminate the Lady Bears for the second straight year

NORTH LITTLE ROCK — For the third consecutive year, the Little Rock Central Lady Tigers played giant killer. 

Central (17-12) knocked out Fort Smith Northside (26-4) for the second consecutive year with a 66-60 victory in the Class 6A state quarterfinals at Charging Wildcat Arena on the campus of North Little Rock High School. Central won 57-49 a year ago before falling 66-38 to Conway in the semifinals. Two years ago, Central shocked No. 1-ranked Conway, 66-60, which beat Central by a total of 99 points in both regular-season meetings before losing 40-27 to Northside in the semifinals.

Central players celebrate the win. (Photo by Jeff Halpern)

Central will play North Little Rock at noon Saturday in the semifinals.

“It was a tough game,” said Central head coach Marlon Williams. “Congratulations to Northside. They had a great season and a great program. Coach (Rickey) Smith does a great job and that’s an understatement because he’s a legendary coach. We’re thankful we got a chance to survive.

“This is all we’re trying to do and that’s build our program the right way and compete with those teams and a host of others. We’re trying to build it the right way so we can sustain it. We’re very thankful. “We’ve got another one and we live to survive one more time.”

Lady Bears head coach Rickey Smith, who has won eight state championships, was gracious in defeat.

“It could have gone either way through all the drama. I have been lucky. Northside has won a lot of games and a lot of state championship games, so I’ve been on both sides of it,” he said. “I’m not going to take anything away from Central. They earned it. They’re going to be hard out if they play like that.”

Central was led by Jordan Marshall. The Louisiana Tech signee and McDonald’s High School All-American nominee had 28 points and 7 rebounds and made 15-of-20 free throws. Aven Sasser had 18 points and made 7-of-8 free throws. Northside was led by Erianna Gooden, who scored 27 points and 11-of-12 free throws. Hazley Grotjohn scored 17 points before fouling out with 2:36 left after she was called for charge and protested it by picking up a technical foul.

“Jordan has been like that all year and for her whole career. She’s scored over 1,600 points and has over 800 rebounds,” said Williams. “She did what she does night and night out. Jordan Marshall is big time.”

As a team, Central shot 28-of-36 free throws for the game. Northside shot 20-of-27 from the line.

“We knew from the start it was going to be a battle,” Marshall said. “They had the motive because we beat them last year. We’ve got to stay composed and stay in it and keep our foot on the gas. We made our free throws toward the end.”

Central also held the rebounding edge 17-10 which Smith acknowledged was hard to overcome. “Their strengths are our weakness,” said Smith. “Their size and shooting. We can’t miss and get a rebound like we can against others. Everything we worked on for the last few days and next thing you know it’s over.”

Northside led 29-22 midway through the second quarter before Central charged back to get to 36-35 at halftime when Taylor Day-Davis made a three-pointer at the buzzer.

“At halftime, we came in here and realized we’re a good veteran team,” said Marshall. “We had too many mishaps. We adjusted to the refs and we said we’ve got to have more energy and pound it inside where we have the advantage.”

The third quarter was nip and tuck before Central went on a 6-1 run over the final 3:56 to lead 47-42 going into the final quarter with Marshall supplying all six points.

Northside tied the game at 47 on a free throw by Kaydence Flemming with 6:04 left and at 49 on a basket by Gooden. Marshall answered with a three-point play at the 3:55 mark to put the Lady Tigers up for good at 52-49. After Grotjohn drove to close it to 52-51, Sasser scored on a feed from Ashlyn Kimble to make it 54-51. Kiaya Davis made two free throws when Grotjohn could out to make it 56-51.

Marshall followed with a jumper to make it 58-51 before Gooden made two free throws with 1:38 left to close it to 58-53. Sasser scored on an assist from Kimble to make it 60-53. Anniyah Brewer scored to close it to 60-55 with 1:08 left.

With Central working the clock, Kiaya Davis made two free throws to make it 62-55 with 52.8 seconds left. Flemming added a free throw with 31.5 seconds left to close it 62-56 before Marshall added two free throws to make it 64-56 with 25.9 seconds left. Gooden made four free throws to close it to 64-60 before Kiaya Davis and Sasser closed it out with free throws.

“I’m disappointed for my kids,” said Smith. “They worked hard and competed hard. We had three foul out. When you get to the state tournament. You’ve got to hit free shows and make layups and we missed some layups. I will watch the film. Central deserves a lot of credit. Their coach is a classic coach. Good for him. They deserved to win.”

Making the state semifinals three consecutive years, Marshall hopes her team can take one more step and that’s earn a trip to the state finals in Hot Springs on March 8.

“I’ve been here since my freshman year. We’ve taken it from not being able to make the state tournament my freshman year to going to the state tournament. This is our third time in the semis and we’re hoping to advance to Hot Springs,” said Marshall.

NORTH LITTLE ROCK 61, SPRINGDALE HAR-BER 48

North Little Rock (27-4) held off a late Springdale Har-Ber (21-10) rally to advance to Saturday’s semifinal against Little Rock Central.

The Lady Charging Wildcats led the entire game but saw Har-Ber use a 11-0 rally to close down to 45-42 before Madison Hatley broke it by making 1-of-2 free throws to make it 46-42.

Katie Fimple made one more free throw with 3:35 left to make it 47-42.

After Jazmine McCarther scored to close it 47-44, Fimple went down the lane to make it 49-44 and Jocelyn Tate hit one free throw with 2:27 left to make it 50-44. After a basket by Har-Ber’s Alexis Fitzgerald closed it to 50-46, Tate, Madison Hatley and Kinley Mears scored tomato it 55-46 with 34.3 seconds left, finishing off the Lady Wildcats.

“They’e hard to keep off the free throw line,” said North Little Rock head coach Daryl Fimple. “They hit some big threes. We got in foul trouble and got everyone back on the floor. We made some stops and extended the game and showed some moxie.”

Tate led the Lady Charging Wildcats with 15 points while Tate had 13 points and 16 rebounds. McCarther led Har-Ber with 17 points and 4 rebounds while Delaney Roller had 15 points and 5 rebounds. Makenlie Campbell had 12 points and 3 rebounds.

North Little Rock defeated Central three times this season. North Little Rock won 55-42 on Dec. 2 at a tournament in Rogers. The Lady Charging Wildcats won both 6A-Central Conference meetings: 51-46 on Jan. 30 and 67-50 on Feb. 20.

Daryl Fimple said he’s not surprised that Central knocked off Northside. “We throught the whole week that would happen,” he said. “We through Central was better. They played really well today and made some big plays down the stretch. They are playing well.”

BOYS

LITTLE ROCK CENTRAL 77, SPRINGDALE 66, OT

A game that started with Little Rock Central jumping out to a 22-0, first-quarter lead, saw the Tigers (25-6) have to go overtime to eliminate Springdale (19-12) in the 6A quarterfinals.

Central will play Springdale-Harber at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in the semifinal.

The Tigers, who led all the way, saw Springdale tie the game 59-all when Cy Bates made two free throws with 39 seconds left.

The Tigers called timeout with 24.3 seconds left on the clock and Luke Moore dribbled the ball before passing to Annor Boateng, who passed it back to Moore, who sank a three-pointer with 1.6 seconds left to give the Tigers a 62-59 lead.

Springdale called timeout and set up a play with Steven Toston inbounding the ball on the sideline. Toston passed the ball to Isaiah Sealy, who made a three-pointer from the left wing as time expired, sending the game to overtime.

“It took a miracle for them to tie it,” said Little Rock Central head coach Brian Ross. “I didn’t say much when we went to overtime because we’ve been in that situation many times, and they were not nervous.

“Sealy is such a tough player to guard.”

In overtime, the Tigers took the lead for good when Daniel Culberson made a layup to make it 66-64. Springdale’s Tyler Bell missed two three pointers and Holden Plant missed before Central got the ball.

Trey Stewart scored to make it 68-64. After Sealy made two free throws with 1:05 left to close it to 68-66, Moore made a three pointer with 18.4 seconds left to extend it to 71-66. Cary Blair made two free throws weight 16.5 seconds left to make it 73-66. As time expired, Annor Boateng went up for a lob and was fouled by Bates. Assistant coach Oscar Sealy, who was filling since the 4:36 mark of the first quarter when head coach Jeremy Price was ejected for violating the “seat belt rule” after an earlier technical foul had been assessed against the Springdale bench, yelled at the officials and was given a technical.

Boateng made all four free throws to set the final margin.

Oscar Sealy said he was proud of the way the team battled after getting in a big hole and said that was the most fight he’d seen all year.

The Bulldogs led 22-0 after the first quarter, 34-25 at halftime and 51-43 after three quarters.

“That first quarter impressive,” said Ross. “Our best players stepped up and we were pumped.”

Ross said he tried to slow the game down and limit Springdale’s possessions as the game went on.

Moore led the Tigers with 29 points while Boateng added 24. Isaiah Sealy finished with 32 for Springdale.

SPRINGDALE HAR-BER 68, JONESBORO 58

Courtland Muldrew scored 38 points to lead Springdale Har-Ber (27-3) to a victory over three-time defending state champion Jonesboro in Thursday’s quarterfinal.

In addition to Muldrew, Hayden Wood scored 20 points for the Wildcats which led 13-10 after the first quarter, 25-24 at halftime and 43-43 after three quarters.

Kellen Smith led Jonesboro (16-14) with 23 points while C.J. Larry and Chris Stacy added 12 points.

--Jeff Halpern I @SBLiveArk