MAUMELLE — Tim Goers was very familiar with Farmington’s boys basketball team and coach Beau Thompson, but never defeated the Cardinals while he was at Ozark.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Because of an early deadline, results of Thursday’s late game between Lincoln and Subiaco can be found on www.nwaonline.com
Goers is now at Booneville, and the Bearcats helped him turned the tables on an old friend.
Booneville pulled off the Class 4A North Region tournament’s first upset Thursday night as the fourth-seeded Bearcats held off top seed Farmington for a 52-45 victory.
“I’ve taken some hits from Beau in the past,” Goers said. “I’ve known him since college. We were teammates, and he’s a great guy.
BOONEVILLE 52, FARMINGTON 45
Booneville 14 12 5 21 — 52
Farmington 13 6 8 18 — 45
Booneville (14-15): Scott 16, Cooney 14, Harvil 11, Lear 8, Maness 3.
Farmington (21-6): Dellett 15, Garner 14, Mueller 7, Brackett 3, Ryan 2, Stevens 2, Hollingsworth 2.
“I had been 0-for-the-ocean against him, and knowing a little bit against them really helped us.”
Farmington (21-6) made things interesting for a while after the Cardinals battled back from a 42-34 deficit in the final five minutes. Farmington put together a 9-2 spurt and cut it to 44-43 on Chase Garner’s bucket with 1 minute, 42 seconds remaining.
Garner then had a chance to give the Cardinals the lead moments later when he was fouled while going for a rebound. However, Garner missed both free throws in a double-bonus situation, and the Cardinals never received another chance as Boonevlle (14-15) pulled away.
“We’ve got our horse at the line,” Thompson said. “If we had two more shots, we would have given it to him again. He’s carried us this far.
“We got the shots we wanted; we just couldn’t make them. At this time of year, if you can’t play well, you can’t expect to move on. We didn’t, and they did.”
Farmington led only twice, and both occasions came in the opening minutes. The Cardinals, however, kept things close and only trailed 14-13 after one quarter.
Alex Dellett hit back-to-back buckets and forced a 17-17 tie with 5 minutes, 54 seconds before halftime, but the rest of the first half belonged to Booneville. Cody Harrell hit three free throws to put the Bearcats ahead to stay en route to a 26-19 lead at halftime.
“Their kids were making for tough for our players to get good shots,” Goers said. “Our kids did a good job of getting them off their feet in the lane and developing some shots.
“We picked it up a notch and played hard against a good team.”
Alexander Scott had 16 points to lead three players in double figures for Booneville, which advances to a 3:30 p.m. semifinal game Saturday and earns a berth in the Class 4A State Tournament. Jacob Cooney added 14 and Harrel 11 for the Bearcats.
Dellett paced Farmington with 15 points, while Garner chipped in 14.
BOYS
Thursday’s Results
Game 1: No. 4 Booneville 52, No. 1 Farmington 45
Game 2: No. 1 Subiaco vs. No. 4 Lincoln, (n)
Today’s Games
Game 3: No. 2 Maumelle vs. No. 3 Gravette, 5:30 p.m.
Game 4: No. 2 Pea Ridge vs. No. 3 Pottsville, 8:30 p.m.
Saturday’s Games
Game 5: Booneville vs. Winner Game 3, 3:30 p.m.
Game 6: Winner Game 2 vs. Winner Game 4 , 6:30 p.m.
Saturday’s Games
Consolation Round
Game 7: Loser Game 4 vs. Loser Game 5, TBD
Championship
Game 8: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6, TBD