HARRISON — At least once a game, Curtis Evans likes to dunk the ball.
The 6-foot-7 junior forward likes the feeling of jumping in the air with his hands above his head and slamming the ball in the basket, which usually comes at pivotal times for Springdale High.
On Monday afternoon in the first round of the Lendel Thomas Classic, Evans’ second-half dunk couldn’t have come at a better time.
Both Evans and senior forward T.J. Andrews finished with 18 points, guiding the Bulldogs to a 73-40 victory over Bergman, giving Springdale its third mercy-rule victory of the year.
Springdale will play Mena in the winner’s bracket at 6:15 p.m. today.
Evans, who’s averaging about 12 points per game this season, also finished with a game-high five blocks and nine rebounds; his breakaway dunk with 8 minutes, 37 seconds left in the game was just an exclamation point to the kind of performance he was having Monday.
“It’s fun, I get a thrill out of dunking,” Evans said. “I feel like it gets our whole team going. We needed that win, especially coming off a long break. If we pass the ball around like we did (Monday), I think we’re one of the best teams in the state.”
Despite a slow start, Springdale (6-4) got hot midway through the first half after senior Joseph Kellogg hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Bulldogs a nine-point lead.
And led by the inside duo of Evans and Andrews, Springdale never looked back.
Meanwhile, Bergman, which was only 1 of 9 from beyond the 3-point arc in the first half, shot only 30 percent (11 of 37) from the floor and committed 16 turnovers.
Leading offensively for Bergman (9-10) was junior Marcus Montgomery with 11 points and senior Matthew Bruce with 10.
“We started with some excitement, but we couldn’t keep up with Springdale’s athleticism,” Bergman coach Dennis Yocham said. “We had some turnovers and didn’t get the kind of looks we wanted; we forced too many shots.”
Springdale started the second half with a 14-3 run, partly because of two key assists from sophomore guard Tony Dennis, and extended its lead to 25 points.
The Bulldogs, who shot nearly 60 percent from the floor, also benefited from four second-half 3-pointers from Dennis, James Sutton, Chase Banks and Lance Sipes.
“The first half, we were a step slow at every ball,” Springdale coach Brad Stamps said. “But as the game went on, I thought we got a little better. We can build off of this, this is the kind of game we wanted coming out of the break. Our goal now is to extend this momentum and keep playing well.”
Stamps also said junior Shelton Baird, one of Springdale’s leading scorers, won’t play in this week’s tournament because of being sick with the flu. Instead of traveling with the team, Stamps said he told Baird to stay home this week and rest as much as possible.
Huntsville 45, Paragould 36
GIRLS — Huntsville sophomore Kirbie Cain scored a game-high 14 points and senior Martha Robinson scored 12 in the Lady Eagles’ first-round victory over Paragould.
Huntsville (10-4) will play the Harrison-Heber Springs winner at 7:30 p.m. today.
Huntsville led by nine points at halftime and managed to hold off a late Paragould (7-4) rally to get the victory.
Cain scored nine of her 14 points in the second half.
Huntsville 57, Paragould 37
BOYS — Huntsville senior Skylar Houston made a game-high six 3-pointers and finished with 22 points to lead the Eagles past Paragould in the first round.
Huntsville will play the Harrison-Heber Springs winner at 8:45 p.m. today.
Junior Bailey Counts also scored 15 points and Tucker Trumbo had seven.
The Eagles (11-1) jumped out a big first-half lead and never looked back late in the game, leading by as much as 25 points at one point.