LITTLE ROCK — Cabot had dreams of an upset early Friday night, but North Little Rock crushed them in the second half of a 61-45 victory at Panther Arena.
Cabot (5-7, 0-1 7A/6A-Central) used a 7-0 run to close out the second quarter as the Panthers took a 22-21 lead into halftime against the Charging Wildcats (12-1, 1-0 ).
“I was afraid our guys might not come out with the energy they needed to,” North Little Rock Coach Johnny Rice said. “Hopefully they found out you can’t take teams lightly, whether they have a winning record or not.”
North Little Rock led 11-9 after the first quarter and seemed to be finding a rhythm offensively when Dayshawn Watkins and Kevaughn Allen hit back-to-back three-pointers in the first 90 seconds of the second quarter. But Cabot held the Wildcats to just one more field goal the rest of the quarter, and a three-pointer by Hunter York sparked the run that gave Cabot a halftime lead.
“We made a few changes at halftime that I think helped,” Rice said. “We don’t play great from behind, so once we got the lead back we were able to pick up our energy and our confidence.”
North Little Rock scored the first six points of the third quarter, then took its first double-digit lead after two three pointers by Watkins.
Watkins led all scorers with 24 points and had 4 assists and 4 steals. All four steals came in the fourth quarter when the Wildcats took control.
The Panthers scored the opening basket of the fourth quarter but couldn’t stop the Wildcats, who outscored Cabot 19-1 run over the next four minutes to take a 58-33 lead.
“I think they just wore on us,” Cabot Coach Jerry Bridges said. “For over three quarters I think our guys executed our game plan as well as they could, but North Little Rock is just so quick and eventually wore us down.”
Sports, Pages 23 on 01/05/2013