LR Hall’s lead safe with Scaife

LITTLE ROCK — Top-ranked Little Rock Hall expected a tough test from No. 7 Fort Smith Southside on Friday night, but the Lady Warriors’ offensive prowess was too much for the Lady Rebels to handle.

Tyler Scaife scored a game-high 26 points as Hall completed a season sweep of Southside with an 83-69 victory at Cirks Arena.

Tiarra Coffey scored 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Hall (19-2, 7-0 7A/6A-Central), which beat Southside 53-47 in their first meeting Jan.5 and has won 16 consecutive games. Taylor Collins also scored 15 points and Rakia Lane had 10.

Payton Hamilton scored 19 points and pulled down 11 rebounds for Southside (15-6, 4-4). Drew Jones added 14 points, while Callie White finished with 12 points and 12 assists.

“I’m proud of the way we played defense [Friday],” Hall Coach Selita Farr said. “The girls played hard, and they kept playing hard the entire game. But we didn’t box out well. That’s the one thing I really wasn’t pleased with.”

Southside out rebounded Hall 35-27 and gave the Lady Warriors all they could handle offensively, but it was the defensive end that gave the Lady Rebels fits and ultimately led to their undoing.

Southside, which had won four of its past five games, had given up an average of 41 points during that span. The Lady Warriors nearly surpassed that total by halftime.

But Hall had a tough time shaking Southside. The Lady Warriors held 10-point leads in both the first and second quarters only to watch the Lady Rebels whittle the deficit to single digits both times by attacking the rim on nearly every possession.

A pair of free throws by Hamilton and a three-pointer by White with 6:32 remaining before the half pulled Southside to within 22-17, but Hall used a Collins’ three-pointer to reel off the game’s next 12 points to create some separation.

“[Southside] really didn’t do anything that surprised us,” Farr said. “They played us the same way they did in the first game, but we adjusted some throughout the week in order to get ready for the game. They made some shots, but the girls just kept playing hard and stayed with it.”

The Lady Warriors led 40-25 at halftime and pushed that margin to as much as 21 behind 12 third-quarter points from Scaife. Her three-pointer at the buzzer gave the Lady Warriors a 61-42 lead going into the fourth period.

Southside made several pushes throughout the final quarter, including a 7-0 run that cut a 22-point lead to 15 with 4:11 left in the game, but Hall made 7 of 9 free throws over the final three minutes to pull away.