Local teams advance to regionals

The goal for any high school basketball coach is for their team to be playing its best in the postseason.

It’s fair to say the Berryville Bobcats are meeting that expectation.

The Bobcats punched their ticket to the regional tournament with a convincing 64-53 victory over Pea Ridge in the second round of the 4A-1 district tournament on Saturday, Feb. 22, in Huntsville.

“I’m so proud of the kids,” said longtime Berryville coach Brent Compton, who earned his 401st career victory. “They played their best game at the biggest time of the year and I’m just so proud of them.”

It’s a cliche to say a game wasn’t as close as the final score indicated, but in this case it’s accurate. Berryville took control by outscoring Pea Ridge 21-4 in the second quarter for a 34-13 halftime lead and was in firm command the rest of the way.

“They were determined from start to finish,” Compton said. “I was worried that as young as we are, we’d be nervous and start kind of slow, but the kids played so well and never left any doubt.”

The Bobcats, who started four sophomores and a junior, got at least 10 points from all five starters. Junior Peyton Smith had 15 points while sophomore Hudson Norris added 13, sophomores CT Hicks and Carson McMellon added 12 points each and sophomore John Butler scored 10.

“The kids really shared the ball,” Compton said. “They found each other. And not that they haven’t done that, but in that game, everybody played well. Everybody did their best. I knew they would play hard. I told them: ‘I just want you to play hard, and when you play hard you’re going to make some mistakes. We’re going to miss some shots and all that.’ I just think they were relaxed and they just played as well as they could play.”

The victory over Pea Ridge followed a 63-61 first-round victory over Gentry on Monday, Feb. 17 and came eight days after Pea Ridge beat the Bobcats 47-46 in the final game of the regular season on Feb. 14 at Bobcat Arena.

Gentry also had beaten Berryville in the teams’ last matchup, 61-49 on Feb. 11, also at Bobcat Arena.

In the rematch, Gentry led 60-58 after a basket with 2:07 remaining, but Smith made two free throws with 1:36 left to tie the score. Gentry made the first of two free throws with 1:03 left to take a 61-60 lead before Berryville patiently worked the ball to Smith, who drove inside the lane and put up a short jumper that rimmed out. Norris grabbed the rebound and scored despite being fouled to give Berryville a 62-61 lead with 34.3 seconds remaining.

After a timeout with 9.4 seconds remaining, a Gentry guard tried to split two Berryville defenders but lost the ball and Smith came up with it. He was fouled with 3.7 seconds left and made the second of two free throws for a 63-61 lead as the Bobcats hung on.

Hicks scored 21 points against Gentry, including 12 in the third quarter. Smith added 17, with 11 coming from the freethrow line, while Norris scored 12.

Beginning Tuesday, Feb. 18, the tournament was delayed because of winter weather and ultimately the final two rounds of the tournament were canceled, with the four remaining teams seeded into the regional tournament based on their regular-season conference finish.

The Bobcats, the No. 4 seed from the 4A-1, will face tournament host Dardanelle at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 26, at Dardanelle High School. The Sand Lizards are the No. 1 seed from the 4A-4.

“They’re going to be a tough matchup,” Compton said. “They’ve got a couple of really strong, athletic post players and we’re trying to figure out how to neutralize them the best we can.”’ With such a young team, just getting to the regionals is an accomplishment for the Bobcats, Compton said, and a building block for the future.

“To start the year, we were just thinking, if we could just get them to the point where we could just make regionals, we’re so young,” Compton said. “We’ve got the majority of our team coming back. Getting to the regionals is a really big deal for this team. Of course, we want to do well when we get there, but just couldn’t have worked out any better. I’m just proud of the kids and want to thank the fans. We had a great fan base there on Saturday for both our girls and boys teams and our kids really fed off that. They were a big part of helping us win.”