FAYETTEVILLE — Long after the warm-ups had concluded Friday night, the Fayetteville girls basketball team was still running a layup line.
Fayetteville opened the second quarter with a flurry of steals and layups, and finished the regular season with a convincing 63-31 victory over visiting Springdale High. Fayetteville (27-2, 13-1) clinched its fourth consecutive 7A-West Conference championship with the victory, and secured a top seed in next week’s Class 7A State Tournament.
Leading 14-8 after a quarter, Fayetteville scored 10 points in the opening 1 minute, 48 seconds of the second quarter — without allowing so much as a single shot attempt. It was part of a 12-0 run that saw them go ahead 26-8.
Springdale (7-20, 2-12) never got close after that, at no point cutting the deficit to less than 17 points.
“Senior Night is a great time of celebration, but it can also be a distraction, and a conference championship was riding on (the outcome),” Fayetteville coach Bobby Smith said. “The fact that we got our business taken care of so effectively and so early … It was a great night to be a Bulldog.”
Springdale took its only lead of the game when Tiffany Wiseley hit a 3-pointer midway through the first quarter, briefly putting her team up 6-5. Fayetteville closed the quarter on an 8-2 run, and by halftime its lead was 34-13.
“Turnovers killed us,” said Springdale coach Scotty Person, whose team committed 10 turnovers in the first quarter, and 16 in the first half. “I told the kids after halftime that ‘If you took our half-court possessions and we played like we practiced, we might be winning this thing.’”
Calli Berna scored 19 points to lead Fayetteville, surpassing the 1,000-point mark for her career on a basket late in the first quarter. Berna is just the 19th player in Fayetteville history, boy or girl, to join the 1,000-point club.
Wiseley led Springdale with 21 points.
Girls Prep Basketball
7A-West Conference
Fayetteville 63, Springdale High 31
Springdale 8 5 10 8 — 31
Fayetteville 14 20 20 9 — 63
Springdale (7-20, 2-12): Wiseley 21, Gilyard 7, Jurgens 3.
Fayetteville (27-2, 13-1): Berna 19, Conley 17, Childers 8, McHenry 8, Clay 3, Young 3, Matlock 2, Early 2, Franklin 1.