Lady Bobcats ‘win the war’ against Green Forest

Berryville coach Daniel Cornelison is no stranger to postseason success, having guided the Lady Bobcats on multiple runs deep into the state tournament.

But Cornelison wasn’t making any effort to hide his excitement after his team earned its first trip to the regional tournament in four years with a 64-41 victory over Green Forest in the second round of the 4A-1 district tournament on Saturday, Feb. 22, at Huntsville.

“Just, thrilled,” Cornelison said. “The kids played real well. They played hard.”

Berryville, which will face Waldron in the first round of the regional tournament at 4 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 27, at Dardanelle High School, is making its first regional tournament appearance since 2021. The Lady Bobcats have gotten there with an undersized roster and just three seniors.

“It’s really a credit to how well these girls bought into what we were going to try to do,” Cornelison said. “We changed a lot of stuff over the summer, both offensively and defensively. They just bought into it. We had a really good summer and it just kind of carried right on over into the season. It has to do with them playing hard every night and for the most part they’ve done that.”

Playing with tremendous effort has been a hallmark of this Berryville team, particularly on defense, where the Lady Bobcats rely on quickness and hustle to overcome their lack of size.

That showed up in the second quarter against Green Forest, when Berryville outscored the Lady Tigers 15-2 after trailing by three points at the end of the first quarter.

“We did exactly what we had to do to win that game,” Cornelison said. “Like I told the girls at the end of the first quarter, it’s all about winning the war, not the battle. We knew what we had to do. We just had to keep the pressure on them. We thought eventually it would wear them down, and it did. I thought if we could keep the pressure on ’em, it would start to take its toll. The start of the second quarter, it did.”

After leading by 10 points at halftime, the Lady Bobcats outscored Green Forest 19-9 in the third quarter to push their lead to 50-30.

Four Berryville players scored in double figures, led by 15 points each from senior Taelor Tomlinson and junior Kaylyn Smith. Junior Hailey Howerton added 14 points and senior Kynadee Hopper scored 10.

Cornelison said Tomlinson and Hopper made some big plays for the Lady Bobcats.

“I was really proud of those two,” he said.

Green Forest had advanced to the second round by recording its first 4A-1 district tournament victory on Monday, Feb. 17, beating Prairie Grove 39-37 on senior guard Kayla Lozano’s layup with two seconds remaining. Seniors Alyvia Newboles and Lydia Russell led the Tigers with 15 points apiece in the loss to Berryville.

As the No. 3 seed in the district tournament, Berryville received a first-round bye. The tournament was delayed for four days because of weather and the semifinals and finals were canceled, with the four remaining teams seeded into the regional tournament based on their district tournament seeding.

Berryville will be the No. 3 seed in the regional tournament and will face Waldron, the No. 2 seed from the 4A-4 in a first-round game. A victory would send the Lady Bobcats to the Class 4A state tournament.

“They’ve got some pretty good size, which is a concern for us because we don’t have that,” Cornelison said. “I think our pressure will bother them. If we can step on the floor and continue to do that, I think we’ll be OK. But if we don’t do that and they use their size all game long, we’re going to be in a dogfight. Hopefully we can step on the floor and take care of business. I like our guards versus their guards. We’ll see if we can take care of it defensively. That’s where it starts for this team, so that’s what we’ve got to do.”