By BRIDGET BAUER
Special to The Leader
ALMA--Time after time, Sylvan Hills Coach Kevin Davis let his Bears play through everything the Harrison Goblins threw at them in their state quarterfinal game Thursday at Charles B. Dyer Arena.
With Davis conserving his timeouts, five-star recruit Archie Goodwin took over in the final two minutes to propel the Bears to a 75-73 victory over the Goblins in the back-and-forth game.
Harrison led 69-64 entering the final 2:14 and the last two minutes featured two ties and two lead changes. Then Goodwin scored 10 of Sylvan Hills’ final 11 points as he converted two three-point plays and also scored on a driving layup.
Goodwin performed his heroics with four fouls, committing the last with three minutes left in the third period.
“Archie has been in this situation before earlier in the year,” Davis said. “I told him he had to show me what he could do. At the end, we were getting the ball to him and clearing out the lane. When he’s in the lane, he is tough.”
Sylvan Hills (24-3) endured 11 lead changes overall. In the second period the Bears lost a 10-point lead to trail 35-32 at halftime, yet Davis did not use a timeout.
“I save my timeouts, and sometimes you have to let them play through,” Davis said. “You see at the end, we needed them. I don’t want the guys to rely on me or the officials. They have to go between the lines and play through.”
Goodwin scored 38 points, 16 in the second half. Larry Ziegler added 19 points and scored eight in the third quarter.
Ziegler’s jumper with 25 seconds left in the period gave the Bears a 53-52 lead going into the fourth quarter. Ziegler also had 10 rebounds.
“Larry brought his A-game,” Davis said.
“He has had a couple of down games. He did a great job on defense switching off his man and helping out down in the lane.”
Harrison (22-6) took advantage of the three-pointer to stay in the game.
With 1:44 left in the second half, Dalton Young made a three-pointer for the game’s first tie at 30-30. After that, the biggest lead was six points. The Goblins led 69-63 after Jeffrey McNair’s three-pointer with 2:28 left in the game.
Harrison made three of its eight three-pointers in the final period.
“This was a phenomenal game,” Davis said. “I told my assistants before we went out that with Harrison’s bunch, this game was going to be a dandy. Give credit to their kids.”
In its opening-round victory over Central Arkansas Christian, Sylvan Hills took a 30-20 halftime lead and then ran away in the third quarter for a 73-50 victory. The Bears scored 22 points in the third quarter.
“We tried to get back to our strengths,” Davis said.
“We threw some different things at them to test the waters. We were better off staying with what we do. Once we went back to what we do best, things turned in our favor.”
