PEA RIDGE — Charley Clark may have called the early timeout for his Pea Ridge, but it was Bentonville’s boys who took advantage of the break Thursday night.
Nick Smith scored the next seven points to put the Tigers ahead to stay, and the Bentonville’s defense turned up the pressure en route to a 62-44 nonconference basketball victory over the Blackhawks.
BENTONVILLE 62, PEA RIDGE 44
Bentonville 23 11 19 9 — 62
Pea Ridge 12 10 11 11 — 44
Bentonville (7-2): Smith 17, Haggard 11, Dixon 9, Heard 8, Ward 8, Estrada 4, Head 2, McNee 2, Guillory 1.
Pea Ridge (10-2): Tillman 3, DeLeon 2, Pitts 10, Mangrum 6, Hall 18, Rose 4, Sheppard 1.
“I think the ball found Nick, and we always want to find him,” Bentonville coach Jason McMahan said. “The guys finally started doing that, but the main thing out of that timeout was to pick up the pressure.
“What we wanted to do was pressure them and forced them to make plays under pressure. Our kids did a good job after that.”
Bentonville (7-2) extended its defense after the timeout, which Clark had called to make some defensive changes after Isaac Mangrum’s bucket tied the score at 7 midway into the first quarter. While Smith picked up scoring pace, Pea Ridge (10-2) managed only two field goals over the next four minutes, allowing the Tigers to build a 23-12 lead.
Smith then gave Bentonville its biggest lead of the first half, 31-15, with a pass from Austin Haggard for an alley-oop dunk with 3:38 before halftime.
“We were doing a better job of guarding them man,” Clark said of the timeout. “The possession before, we had one kid in zone so we were just correcting that.
“The biggest issue we had was they are a very physical team, and we weren’t prepared. I think that’s good. I would rather see that out of guys this time of year, and we see we’re not physical enough. That’s something we can address over the Christmas break.”
Pea Ridge did cut the lead to 34-22 at halftime and pulled within single digits after Jacob Hall’s 3-pointer to start the second half. Bentonville then responded with a 12-2 run, thanks to a pair of three-point plays by Austin Haggard, and went on to lead by as much as 22 points early midway into the fourth quarter.
“In that stretch, I didn’t think we were rebounding the ball like we should,” McMahan said. “Our first-shot defense was pretty good, but they were getting second opportunities.
“That was the challenge — to rebound the ball better. Once we started doing that and held them to one shot, we were OK.”
Smith scored 13 of his team-high 17 points in the first half, while Haggard added 11 points for Bentonville, which returns to action next week in the Neosho (Mo.) Holiday Classic. Hall led all scorers with 18 points, all on 3-pointers, while Levi Pitts added 10 for Pea Ridge, which plays in the Southwest Holiday Tournament.