Late Surge Lifts Bentonville

Bentonville's Kindal Coleman dribbles the ball down court during the second-round game against East Newton in the Neosho Holiday Classic basketball tournament at Neosho (MO) Middle School on Friday December 27, 2013.
Bentonville's Kindal Coleman dribbles the ball down court during the second-round game against East Newton in the Neosho Holiday Classic basketball tournament at Neosho (MO) Middle School on Friday December 27, 2013.

NEOSHO, Mo. - The Bentonville girls picked a good time to get on a roll.

Bentonville outscored East Newton, Mo., 15-2 to begin the second half Friday and defeated the Lady Patriots 56-45 in the Neosho Holiday Classic. Bentonville will play for the championship in the gold division at 5:30 p.m. today against Van Buren or Webb City, Mo., at Neosho High School.

East Newton (6-3) cut its halftime deficit to 26-24 after trailing much of the fi rst half. But the Lady Tigers turned it on again to lead 43-33 after three quarters. Kindal Coleman led the surge with two 3-pointers and a driving layup. Heather Brown added a three-point play and two free throws to prompt an East Newton timeout with 4 minutes, 51 seconds left in the third quarter. That pause didn’t slow Bentonville, which widened its lead to 41-26 after a layup by Jordan Martin.

“The third quarter was huge for us,” Bentonville coach Tom Halbmaier said. “We came out, attacked the basket, and got some easy buckets. We also hit some free throws to help create a cushion, so to speak.”

Martin finished with 16 points, mostly on driving layups, to lead Bentonville. Coleman followed with 13 and Brown added nine.

“Getting to the basket is Jordan’s strength and she really did a good job at that today,” Halbmaier said.

East Newton used some pressure defense to take a brief lead in the first half. Bentonville was leading 23-21 when Laura Hopper made two jumpers. The Lady Patriots then turned consecutive backcourt steals into basketsby Emily Brummett and Aubrey McDermott. Following a timeout, Bentonville made four consecutive free throws to end the first half then blew the game open with its third-quarter surge.

Only an off-balanced 3-pointer at the buzzer by Ellie White enabled East Newton to get to within 10 after three quarters. But Bentonville pulled away again behind Martin, who scored24 points in a victory over Carthage, Mo., on Thursday.

“Bentonville did a good job of keeping the pressure on us,” East Newton coach Marty Rinehart said. “They had a stretch where they hit a lot of shots and we didn’t. They made some transition baskets and we had some lapses in our defense that really hurt us.”

White finished with 10 points to lead East Newton.

Sports, Pages 7 on 12/28/2013

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