By Todd Traub
Leader sports editor
The Beebe Badgers might get used to playing in tournament championships.
Beebe advanced to its third final in three tournaments as it beat Brookland 46-30 on the home court in the semifinals of the Beebe Holiday Classic at Badger Arena.
Beebe trailed just once in the opening seconds, led 16-9 at halftime and outscored Brookland 21-4 in the third quarter.
It was another solid outing for the Badgers (9-2), under first-year coach Ryan Marshall, who won the Greenbrier tournament and lost to Little Rock Christian in the final at Morrilton.
“Obviously being here at our home court it feels great,” Marshall said. “It’s good that we’re building on things.”
Marshall, Beebe’s third coach in four seasons, is trying to build continuity and the Badgers appear to be responding with their tournament success.
“The kids enjoy playing and it’s a good time to play because they’re out of school,” Marshall said. “It gives them something to do and they don’t have their everyday routine.”
Beebe opened the second half with a free throw from Brade James to start a 14-0 run fueled by eight Brookland turnovers. The run included a three-pointer by Zac May, a dunk by Dayton Scott off a Devonte Young miss and a steal and layup by Young.
“We talked about pushing the ball a little more and also we picked them up full court,” Marshall said about his team’s defensive switch. “We got out of our halfcourt man and just kind of turned the tempo up a little bit. We got after it and then they made some turnovers and that created some easy looks for us.”
The tempo change was most important after a first half in which Marshall felt Beebe played into Brookland’s hands.
“I told them coming in that Brookland was going to play pretty good defense and they put themselves in good situations,” Marshall said. “They were patient with the ball in the first half against us; we played defense quite a bit there at stretches.”
Brookland finally scored when Jared Smith made a basket with 2:16 left in the third quarter but Jared Gowen came back with an inside basket followed by May’s turnaround jumper and a score by Scott for the final points of the quarter.
Brookland’s only other points in the period came on Dustin Stout’s bank shot with 1:38 left.
For Marshall, the second half was a chance to put in plenty of reserves and rest his starters heading into Thursday’s final.
“Tomorrow will be our sixth game in 12 days so that was a big key for us resting some guys,” Marshall said.
“Our point guard, Devonte, and Brandon Fuller, we’ve got some guys doing a lot of things for us so I felt like if we could get their legs under them a little bit it would be a big deal for tomorrow.”
The game also gave Marshall a chance to evaluate his talent heading for the start of 5A-East play on Jan. 7.
“We talked about that at half a little bit with some of the kids,” Marshall said.
“They’ve got to build some trust with our coaching staff that we know we can put them in there. We’ve got that coming up Jan. 7 going to Blytheville and, too, not only confidence for that but next year, we’ve only got two seniors.”
Despite the relatively low score, Beebe got points from 10 different players.
Scott led Beebe with 13 points and Young scored 11. Ty Still scored 12 points to lead Brookland.
