SPRINGDALE — Springdale High boys basketball coach Brad Stamps just wanted his team to hold on Tuesday night.
Stamps pleaded with his players late in the game to make smart decisions, simply because he wasn’t ready to watch his team sustain its fourth loss in almost a week.
Thanks to the second-half heroics of senior forward Curtis Evans and junior Mytaah Crawford, Springdale held on to defeat Bentonville 42-37 in Bulldog Gymnasium.
Evans scored a game-high 16 points, including seven in the second half, while Crawford finished with seven points to help give the Red’Dogs (16-10, 8-5 7A-West Conference) their first victory in a week.
The victory for Springdale was especially important after Bentonville (14-12, 5-7) shocked No. 1-ranked Fort Smith Southside on Monday night by three points.
“I told our guys that I’ve had a bad taste in my mouth for about a week,” Stamps said. “I knew my players had the same thing, so it was nice to come into a winning locker room.
“We have to carry the momentum from (Tuesday) into Friday’s game (at Fayetteville) and try to have a two-game winning streak going into the state tournament.”
Springdale built an early seven-point lead in the first half after getting a combined three 3-pointers from Evans and sophomores Deshaun Stark and Alex Scharlau.
More impressively, the Red’Dogs held onto that lead in the second half by playing aggressive defense and forcing the Tigers into nine turnovers.
Bentonville came within three points of Springdale’s lead with 58.4 seconds left in the game when junior guard Mason Snow got a steal off a Springdale inbounds play to score a wide-open layup.
Despite hitting only 4 of 8 foul shots in the second half, Springdale never faltered down the stretch and got big shots from junior Kempys Robinson and senior Shelton Baird.
“We didn’t play very good, I had a feeling it was going to be like that all day,” Bentonville coach Jason McMahan said. “We had a bad practice and a bad shootaround (Tuesday), so it was tough, especially after an emotional victory on Monday night.”