IN SHORT: Lonoke, ladies dominate Mountain View, taking home two wins Friday night.
By JASON KING
Leader sports writer
Lonoke came away with a pair of conference wins on Friday against visiting Mountain View. The Lady Jackrabbits dominated the first game of the night to take a 49-28 win over the Lady Yellowjackets, keeping their league record perfect after four 2-4A games.
The boys team had an equally easy time with the Yellowjackets in the final game of the night. The Jackrabbits kept Mountain View in single digits during every quarter except for the last one to take a 49-25 win.
Jackrabbits coach Wes Swift was anticipating a tough battle from Mountain View after the Yellowjackets took conference leaders Marianna and Heber Springs down to the wire. An improved Lonoke defense kept Marianna in single digit scoring in the first three quarters, however, and allowed the ’Rabbits to pull away in the opening quarter and not look back.
“I was expecting a closer game after they played the heck out of Marianna and Heber,” Swift said. “Defensively, we played a great game and kept them off balance all night. Offensively, we didn’t put it away as early as I thought we could have. We never did extend full court defensively and press; we just ran a straight man defense and stayed half court all night.”
While Swift is pleased with the improvements on defense, he says the shooting will have to improve if the ’Rabbits want to battle for the conference lead.
“We have been missing too many of what I call chippy shots,” Swift said. “Missing layups and short jumpers, and we have to make that better. We should have been up a lot more in the first half, but we took too many bad shots.”
Stanley Staggers and Tyrone Dobbins led the Jackrabbits with 10 points each.
Michael Taylor added nine points, and Clarence Harris had eight points.
The win improves Lonoke’s record to 7-4 overall and 3-1 in the 2-4A Conference.
The Lady Jackrabbits had an easy one on Friday as well, dominating the Lady Yellowjackets from the opening period on. Lonoke jumped out to a 22-9 lead at halftime, and would only extend their lead in the second half.
“We came out and played hard, they had a hard time stopping us early,” Lady ’Rabbits coach Nathan Morris said. “I was especially happy with how we played defense in the second half. Even though they scored more points on us in the second half, I felt like we played with a lot more intensity.”
Calisha Kirk led Lonoke with 20 points. Jenny Evans and Asiah Scribner each added 10 points for the Lady Jackrabbits.
The win gives the Lady ’Rabbits an overall record of 7-5, and keeps their league record unblemished at 4-0, putting them one game out of first place to conference-leading Heber, who stands at 5-0.
Lonoke will host Stuttgart in another conference matchup this Friday, and will then be off until the start of the White County Medical Classic at Beebe starting Dec. 27.