BENTONVILLE — Pea Ridge couldn’t match Bentonville’s inside-outside scoring punch Monday night.
Bentonville used a combination of 3-pointers and driving layups for a quick 15-5 lead, and the Lady Tigers went on to defeat the Lady Blackhawks 61-37 in a nonconference girls basketball game at Tiger Arena.
Jordan Martin led three Bentonville (8-2) players in double figures with 16 points, while Deanna Adkins added 14 points and Madison Brittain added 10. Pea Ridge managed to score just 15 points in the second half after being as close as four points late in the first half.
“I was pleased with the overall level of scoring,” said Bentonville coach Tom Halbmaier. “We got to play a lot of kids that we haven’t had a chance to play as much, and that will help with their confidence. We did the things we needed to do, and we played well enough to win.”
Martin scored most of her points in the paint as the junior guard was 7-of-9 from the field while also grabbing a team-high nine rebounds. Adkins added four 3-pointer, and Brittain made all three of her two-point attempts. Bentonville was 25-of-52 from the field (48 percent) and 8-of-20 (40 percent) from 3-point range.
“I was pleased with the overall effort, and we were able to execute,” Halbmaier said.
Mikheala Cochran led Pea Ridge (4-8) with 15 points, while Savannah Cypert finished with 14. Only four Pea Ridge players found the scoring column as the Lady Blackhawks have three players out with concussions.
“We made a couple of runs, but half the time we struggled to find our man,” said Pea Ridge coach Larry Walker. “We were in a zone and we were in a man, and we struggled to find them. Bentonville is too good a shooting team not to find them.”
Bentonville took a 18-7 lead to the second quarter, but the Lady Blackhawks answered with a 7-0 run to cut the Lady Tigers lead to four. Carley Sanders started the Pea Ridge run with a three-point play and Cypert hit four-straight free throws to cut the lead to 18-14 with 5 minutes, 34 seconds left in the first half.
But Brittain started a 7-0 Lady Tigers run with a 3-pointer, and Bentonville closed out the first half with a 6-0 run over the final minute, capped by a 3-pointer by Kindal Coleman, for a 33-22 lead at the break.
“We are thin on the bench, and after you play three days in a row in a tournament, it hurts,” Walker said.
BOYS
Bentonville 70, Pea Ridge 33
Bentonville raced to a 21-8 lead, and the Tigers never looked back in defeating the Blackhawks.
Tyrik Dixon was the only Bentonville player in doubles figures with 16 points as 10 different players found the scoring column.
Pea Ridge (4-7) opened the second half with a 7-0 run that cut the Tigers’ lead to 36-24, but Dixon scored 10 points during a 21-2 run that gave Bentonville (6-3) a 57-29 lead going to the fourth quarter.