ByRAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The inexperienced Falcons won their first game this season, and first-year coach Roy Jackson is 1-0 as the head of a high-school basketball program. North Pulaski didn’t just win, but pummeled Joe T. Robinson 62-28 at home Tuesday.
The win was a big turnaround from the previous Saturday, when North Pulaski was handled easily by Conway and Jacksonville in the preseason Jacksonville Jamboree.
Jackson was glad to see his team perform well, and happy to start his career with a win.
“Man, it feels wonderful,” Jackson said. “The kids played hard. They could’ve got discouraged about the jamboree, but they just kept working. I think that’s the kind of team I’m going to have. We’re going to take some lumps early on but these kids are going to work hard.”
The first quarter was close and sloppy. Neither team was able to run much effective offense. North Pulaski ended the first frame up 12-10, and the skittish play on both sides continued through much of the second quarter.
“I think they were just too anx ious at the start,” Jackson said. “They weren’t being patient and waiting for good shots. We’re small so that’s something we’re going to have to learn to do. We did a lot better job in the second half.”
North Pulaski began to pull away just before halftime, taking a 27-18 lead into the break. Not only did the offense get better in the second half, the defense did as well. Pulaski Robinson’s 10 first-quarter points was its best quarter. Each one after that, the Senators’ output went down by a basket. North Pulaski held Robinson to just six field goals the entire game. The senators got 16 of their points at the free-throw line.
Jackson, though, wasn’t as impressed as those statistics might indicate.
“We really didn’t play defense that well at all – not to my standards,” Jackson said. He explained what he meant.
“We started in man and weren’t moving our feet like we’re supposed to,” Jackson said. “We were reaching and got into foul trouble, so we had to sit back in a zone. When we went to that zone, they just struggled hitting their shots. They got some good looks, they just weren’t making anything.”
North Pulaski started zone trapping in the second half and ran away with the game, despite senior post Jeremiah Hollis picking up his fourth foul less than a minute into the third quarter. He’s the team’s only true post player, but the Falcons’ quickness made getting the ball up the floor problematic for the Senators.
“They had a couple of guys with some size so we had to do something to try to negate the fact that we didn’t have a post player on the floor,” Jackson said. “Fortunately I thought we played a lot better and a lot smarter defense in the second half.”
The Falcons outscored Robinson 24-6 in the third quarter, taking a 51-24 lead into the final frame.
Hollis checked back in to start the fourth quarter and the Falcons went inside immediately. On their first possession, the ball went inside to Hollis on the box. He turned into the lane and hit a short jumper that made it 53-24. Second later, the Falcons’ pressure forced a turnover. Senior Marvin Davis got the ball on the wing and nailed a three pointer that invoked the mercy rule with 7:24 left in the game.
Now that game one is out of the way, the Falcons have some time to evaluate their performance before the next outing. North Pulaski’s first road game is next, a trip to always strong Little Rock McClellan on Nov. 18.
“It’s good that we have 10 days to work on some things,” Jackson said. “It gets tough right now. McClellan is good and after that it’s Jacksonville. We’ve still got a long way to go.”
The Lady Falcons will also begin their season at McClellan on Friday. They will also host the crosstown rivarly on Nov. 22.
