LITTLE ROCK — I.J. Ready left Fayetteville reeling Saturday night.
Ready, the Little Rock Parkview senior guard, sparked a 10-0 outburst midway through the second half to lift the Patriots to a 72-59 victory over the Bulldogs in the Arkansas Hoop Challenge at Maumelle High School.
After hitting two free throws to give the Patriots a 52-50 lead, Ready had assists on three of Parkview’s next four possessions to give the Patriots a lead that was never challenged again.
“I just told [Ready] to get aggressive,” Parkview CoachAl Flanigan said. “We wanted him to go off a screen and score every time.”
While Ready did not score, he found the open man and the Patriots (6-1) knocked down the open shots.
“He’s a really good guard,” Fayetteville Coach Kyle Adams said. “He’s just that good, he and [Anton] Beard both. They present a lot of problems, and they will for everybody they play.”
Beard finished with a team-high 23 points while grabbing 6 rebounds and making 6 steals. Ready collected 21 points and had seven assists.
Manuale Watkins led Fayetteville with 14 points, Caleb Waitsman added 12 and 6-10 center Tyler McCullough finished with 10 points and 14 rebounds.
Ready found Deshaun Kelly for a layup with 7:25 to play for a 54-50 Parkview lead. Forty-five seconds later, Daryl Macon was on the receiving end of one of Ready’s assists, and at the 6:25 mark Beard completed a steal and layup for a 58-50 lead.
Ready and Kelly hooked up again for another layup with 5:50 to play, and with 5:25 remaining Ready passed to Zachary McFadden, who made a 10-footer for a 62-51 advantage.
“Coach just told us to keep running, keep pushing and find the open man,” Ready said. “Fayetteville was trying to trap and I would split the defense. If they doubled me, I would kick it to the open man for the layup.”
Fayetteville (10-3) lost despite hitting 17 of 25 field goal attempts in the first half. In fact, Parkview led at the break, 42-38.
“Fayetteville hit some heck of a shots,” Flanigan said. “I kept telling my players to stay in it, stay focused and keep challenging them. I knew they couldn’t keep shooting the ball like that the entire game.”
Fayetteville cooled off in the second half and finished 24 of 45 from the floor. Parkview finished 23 of 44, going 12 of 18 in the second half.
Sports, Pages 37 on 12/16/2012