By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The North Pulaski boys got back on the winning track on Tuesday, beating the Malvern Leopards 58-42 on the road. That win followed a 1-1 showing at the Alumni Classic at Central High School in Little Rock. The Falcons beat Blytheville 44-42 in its opening game at Central, then lost 55-46 to JA Fair, a team it had beaten earlier this season. It was the team’s only loss so far this season, but coach Roy Jackson was pleased to see how his young team bounced back from its first disappointment of the year.
“We came out flat against Fair,” Jackson said. “Anytime you go out against a team you’ve already beaten, you worry about the intensity a little bit. I just don’t think we played with the right intensity, but I think we learned from it. We learned you can’t do that because even teams you know for a fact you should beat can still beat you.
“We broke down film from that game and came back with a lot better intensity against Malvern. So they bounced back. I was happy to see that.”
Even in the loss to Fair, Jackson liked the effort his team put forth in the second half. The Falcons managed just nine points the entire first half and trailed 22-9. But battled back to score 21 in the third quarter and found themselves just three points behind going into the fourth quarter. In the course of the comeback, North Pulaski piled up fouls and Fair spent most of the fourth quarter at the free-throw line. The Eagles hit 16 of 20 attempts from the line to pull away late.
“It’s a young team and we’re going to have some ups and downs,” Jackson said. “They came back and really had one of their best quarters of the season.”
In Tuesday’s win at Malvern, the Leopards were without their starting point guard and the Falcons went to work immediately to exploit that weakness. North Pulaski’s pressure forced several first-half turnovers as the Falcons built a 31-18 lead at the break.
“We put a lot of pressure on them early and they couldn’t handle the press,” Jackson said. “We got a lot of layups and we shot the ball pretty well. We probably forced 25 or more turnovers in the game.”
Junior guard Joe Aikens led the Falcons with 18 points while freshman point guard RaShawn Langston added 17.
Jackson believes Langston is emerging as one of the best freshmen in the state.
“I think he’s right up there,” Jackson said. “He’s averaging about 13 or 14 points a game for us. You’ve got Adrian Moore at Conway and you’ve got the Monk kid at EPC, but RaShawn is in the top five freshmen anyway.”
The Falcons play Bryant at 7:30 p.m. Monday at at Conway High School.
