LITTLE ROCK — It took a while for Little Rock Hall’s boys to get into an offensive rhythm, but once they did, they never got out of it.

Bobby Portis scored 21 of his game-high 28 points in the first half to power the No. 3 Warriors past struggling Fort Smith Southside 86-60 on Friday night at Cirks Arena in Little Rock.

Hall used a deliberate pace off its offensive sets to score the game’s first 11 points, then picked up the tempo considerably to remain undefeated in the 7A/6A-Central Conference.

“I thought we could’ve played a little better on the defensive end,” Hall Coach Jon Coleman said. “I thought Southside did a good job of running their half-court offense. But I was really pleased with the intensity my guys showed.

“With a big week coming up for us next week, I thought we played well for the most part in this one.”

Anthony Black finished with 16 points for Hall (15-5, 7-0), which had defeated the Rebels by 24 points in their league opener. Dayton Artis had 14 points, and Roy Owens added 11 points and eight rebounds.

Clayton Pankey led Southside (6-16, 1-7) with 12 points. Jalean Woods added 10. The Rebels have now lost 8 of 9 games, but they did have their moments against the much bigger Warriors.

Behind Portis’ 15 second quarter points, including a pair of dunks, Hall opened up a 21-point lead midway through the quarter. Southside, though, continued to fire away from the outside and got within 38-26. Christopher Moore nearly cut the Rebels’ deficit to nine points with 2:06 left in the quarter, but had his three-pointer go halfway down before eventually rattling out.

From there, the Warriors outscored the Rebels 10-0 over the final two minutes to regain control and take a 48-26 lead into halftime.

Southside scored the first two baskets of the second half on layups by Reese Strickland and Mitchell Spradlin. But Hall then went on a 12-0 run, with eight points coming from Owens and Portis, to bust the game open.

“[Southside] had some new personnel and some new combinations that we had to get used to there for a while,” Coleman said. “But I thought we adjusted well and did what we had to do. Our first goal from the beginning of the season was to win the conference. We’re at Game 8 now.

“We’ve got to take them one at a time, but we’re looking forward to the rest of them.”

Sports, Pages 24 on 02/02/2013