Pea Ridge Holds Off Berryville

— Nick DeLeon made the most of a second chance Friday night. The 6-foot senior guard missed the front end of a 1-and-1 free throw situation with 37.7 seconds left in the fourth quarter, but hit both free throws 25 seconds later to help Pea Ridge claim a 46-42 win over Berryville in boys’ 4A-1 Conference basketball action.

Prep Basketball

4A-1 Conference

PEA RIDGE 46, BERRYVILLE 42

Berryville 15 4 13 10 — 42

Pea Ridge 11 9 16 10 — 46

Berryville (10-6, 1-3): Hoppe 16, Carr 10, Adams 6, Morrell 5, Porter 3, Lehr 2.

Pea Ridge (13-3, 4-0): Hall 15, Pitts 11, DeLeon 6, Mangrum 6, Tillman 5, Rose 2, Davis 1.

Girls

Berryville 59, Pea Ridge 35

The Lady Bobcats closed the first half with a 13-3 run and never looked to claim the 4A-1 Conference win.

Juniors guards Britni Smith and Hannah Needham combined for 24 points to help Berryville (12-4, 2-2 4A-1) pull away for the win.

Smith finished with a game-high 13, while Needham added 11, including three 3-pointers. Carley Sanders and Taylor Winn led Pea Ridge (3-12, 0-4) with seven points each.

With Pea Ridge clinging to a 44-42 lead, DeLeon’s miss gave Berryville (10-6, 1-3 4A-1 Conference) a chance to tie or take the lead in the final minute of the fourth quarter. But he was far from finished.

DeLeon, who finished with just six points, came up with a huge defensive rebound of Donnie Hoppe’s miss and was fouled again with 12.3 seconds left.

This time DeLeon canned both free throws to push the Pea Ridge lead to four. He also grabbed the rebound after Berryville’s final miss and held on as time expired.

Pea Ridge coach Charley Clark was proud of his team’s poise, especially DeLeon.

“He’s started every game for us,” Clark said. “We didn’t mind them fouling any one of the five our there. They had to foul and we weren’t going to worry about that. We had confidence in all of them.

“Nick, he missed the free throw, but that didn’t affect him. He comes down and gets a big rebound in traffic and makes the two to give us that four-point cushion.”

Jacob Hall led Pea Ridge (13-3, 4-0) with 15 points, while Levi Pitts added 11. Hoppe, a 6-0 senior, led all scorers with 16 points for Berryville.

The Bobcats clawed back from an eight-point deficit early in the fourth quarter and had the ball where they wanted it late in the game, Berryville coach Brent Compton said.

Hoppe’s 10-foot jumper in the middle of the lane, which could have tied the game, just rimmed out.

“He’s an All-Stater,” Compton said. “He’s made that shot a million times. It just rimmed out this time and they got the rebound. I was proud of our kids though. They didn’t panic. We gave ourselves a chance to win.”

Clark was also pleased with his team’s defense in a game that baskets were hard to come by.

“These conference games are going to be tough,” Clark said. “I was proud of see when we needed to get stops, we got stops. We’re gonna have a lot of grind-it-out games and I was proud for us to win this one.”

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