By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
The Sylvan Hills Bears couldn’t match the inside dominance of North Little Rock on Friday, as the Charging Wildcats rolled to a 82-62 win at Charging Wildcats Arena. North Little Rock wasted little time lighting up the scoreboard, rushing out to a 27-13 lead at the end of eight minutes on its way to the huge win.
The Bears were forced to try their hand from the outside for the most part, but NLR offered little relief defensively. Sylvan Hills did manage to slow down the Wildcats’ offensive attack beginning in the second quarter, but could never dig itself out of the early hole.
“They make it tough to make anything inside,” Sylvan Hills coach Kevin Davis said. “Defensively, we had trouble stopping them either way. They shot well inside in the first quarter, so we tried to go zone on them in the second quarter, and they just started knocking it down from the outside then.”
The Bears closed the interval slightly in the second frame to trail 44-30 at the intermission, but North Little Rock stepped things up once again in the third quarter to surpass the 20-point lead mark once again, and held on to it during the final frame.
Kai Randolph led the Bears with 23 points, while Cameron Robinson added 13 points. For North Little Rock, Trey Allison led with 16 points, while Cedric Dunn added 15 for the Charging Wildcats.
North Little Rock’s first-quarter performance was a bad sign of things to come for Sylvan Hills. Five three-point baskets, five field goals and 13 of 15 shots from the free-throw line put the Bears in a big hole in a hurry, and that hole would not shrink much at all throughout the course of the contest.
“For Davis, his young team’s refusal to give up, even in the most adverse of situations, is something he believes will help after the first of the year when league play begins in the tough 6A-East Conference.
“They had such a great first quarter,” Davis said. “I thought we battled through the game even though they put us in such a big hole at the first. That’s really all you can do when you’re in a mismatch like that, just keep fighting and try to get better.”
The Bears hosted Oak Grove last night in a senior boys/ senior girls doubleheader, and will take part in the Greenbrier tournament over the holidays.
