Heard Helps Tigers Take Third Place

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

— Austin Heard’s hot shooting Saturday helped Bentonville’s boys basketball team reach a place it had never been before under fourth-year coach Jason McMahan.

The senior guard scored 12 of his game-high 26 points in the first quarter and helped Bentonville take third place in the Neosho Holiday Classic with a 62-48 victory over Memphis (Tenn.) Sheffield.

"You know, that's a lot of pressure put on our three guards that we were able to handle in order to make it easy at the back end. Memphis Sheffield is supposed to be the best team in its conferences. That makes it a great win for us."

Jason McMahan

Bentonville coach

Heard matched the Knights point for point throughout the opening eight minutes and helped Bentonville (10-3) take a 19-12 lead. That included eight straight points during a 13-0 Tiger run in a three-minute span and helped them take the lead for good.

“Just a great senior leader that played unbelievable,” McMahan said. “You know, that’s a lot of pressure put on our three guards that we were able to handle in order to make it easy at the back end.

“Memphis Sheffield is supposed to be the best team in its conference. That makes it a great win for us.”

Even when Bentonville’s offense cooled off at times, the defense took up the slack. The Tigers hit only two field goals in an eight-minute span after their early 17-5 cushion, but they never allowed Sheffield to get any closer than five points before taking a 28-20 halftime lead.

The Knights’ only other comeback bid came after senior forward Nick Smith’s 3-pointer gave Bentonville a 36-23 lead with 5 minutes, 30 seconds left in the third quarter. Sheffield scored seven points and pulled within 36-30 on Broderick Davis’ bucket at the 3:27 mark, but that was as close as the Tigers let it get.

“I think why that happened was a combination of good defense and ball handling,” McMahan said. “If one of them ever broke down, they never went on an 8-0 run.

“We bounced back against a good high school team, and this was great preparation for heading into (7A/6A-West) Conference play.”

Smith added 17 points and freshman guard Tyrik Dixon chipped in 11 for Bentonville, which heads into conference play Friday with a home game against Van Buren. Jaylon Smith led Sheffield with 15 points, followed by Davis with 10.

Bentonville 62 Memphis (Tenn.) Sheffield 48

Sheffield 12 8 12 16 — 48

Bentonville 19 9 15 19 — 62

Sheffield: J. Smith 15, B. Davis 10, T. Davis 9, Dixon 7, T. Smith 5, Quinn 2.

Bentonville (10-3): Heard 26, Smith 17, Dixon 11, Haggard 4, Sanchez 2, Ward 2.