By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
CONWAY — No one has ever accused North Pulaski coach Ray Cooper of not pushing his players hard enough.
Except for Ray Cooper.
Guy-Perkins beat the foul-plagued Falcons 68-63 in the consolation round of the Wampus Cat Invitational at Buzz Bolding Arena on Thursday.
The loss wasn’t quite what Cooper was hoping to see after he took his team straight from Conway to the Falcons Nest for an impromptu workout Monday following a first-round loss to Jonesboro.
“I mean, I don’t know what to do,” Cooper said. “This is the most uncoachable group of kids I’ve ever had in my life. And they keep repeating the same mistakes over and over and over no matter what you do in practice. Nothing seems to work.”
The Thunderbirds (13-4) used their upperclassmen’s experience and size to control the rebounding and the tempo. Dynamic senior post Denell Henderson finished the game with 27 points, 12 rebounds and nine blocked shots.
“Our guards keep our big guys in foul trouble because they keep reaching at the ball,” Cooper said. “And I take one of them out and put another one in, and they keep doing the same thing. And I’m really at a loss for words, and not a lot of answers.
“I might as well find a brick wall or a pole or somebody to talk to, because I’m getting the same results.”
The Falcons (1-5), who reached the 5A state semifinals last year, had their moments early in each quarter and briefly took a 34-31 lead when guard Braylon Spicer hit a three-pointer with an assist from sophomore Dayshawn Watkins with 5:11 left in the third quarter.
But frequent fouls sent the Thunderbirds to the free-throw line 22 times, where they hit 29 of 42 shots.
Cooper was further frustrated by his players’ failure to grasp that Guy-Perkins was in the double bonus.
“I really don’t know what to do about it,” he said. “Because I had one of them ask me during the time out were they in the double bonus in the fourth quarter, and [Guy] had been in the double bonus for seven minutes. They had already shot in the double bonus eight, nine times, and he didn’t even realize they were in the double bonus.
“We’ve got a little bit of hard headedness, sprinkled in with a little bit of stupid.”
Guy Perkins coach John Hutchcraft was in a better frame of mind following the game.
“I think we had a good game,” Hutchcraft said. “I was proud of Brandon Rooney and Brian Hooten, because North Pulaski puts that guard pressure on you. You better have a guard when you play them.
“Now, Denell Henderson and Alex Davis, inside players, they did a good job. But when you play that team, you better have some guards, and we did.”
Rooney and Hooten were prime examples of Guy-Perkins’ advantage at the free-throw line.
Rooney, a senior point guard, scored 11 of his 15 points at the line while classmate and small forward Hooten scored five of his 13 points on free throws.
But it was Henderson, the Thunderbirds 6-6 big man who controlled everything under both rims. Several North Pulaski drives to the hoop were foiled by a swipe of the hand from Henderson, who was called twice for goaltending.
“He had a great ball game on both ends,” Hutchcraft said. “Shot blocks and him contesting the shots, he played big tonight.”
Senior forward Bryan Colson led the Falcons with 14 points and five rebounds.
Junior Courvoisica Allen added 12 points and led North Pulaski with eight rebounds. Watkins and Marcus Williams each added seven points while Shyheim Barron finished with six.
Davis had 11 points and nine rebounds for Guy-Perkins.
North Pulaski will wrap up the Wampus Cat tourney today at 11:30 a.m. against Vilonia.
