Saturday, January 5, 2013
BENTONVILLE — Aaron Ward’s point production might not look that impressive in the scorebook Friday night, but those points came when Bentonville needed them the most.
BENTONVILLE 57, VAN BUREN 51
Van Buren 10 13 15 13 — 51
Bentonville 15 10 16 16 — 57
Van Buren (7-7, 0-1): Ray 18, Pearson 15, Pagel 5, Tucker 4, Smith 4, McKee 3, Harms 2
Bentonville (11-3, 1-0): Smith 19, Heard 15, Haggard 9, Ward 8, Dixon 4, Head 2
The senior forward had seven of his eight points in the third quarter and helped the Tigers regain the lead for good in a 57-51 victory over Van Buren in the 7A/6A-West Conference basketball opener for both teams in Tiger Arena.
Ward’s inside bucket with 1 minute, 35 seconds left in the third quarter put Bentonville (11-3, 1-0 7A/6A-West) ahead 39-38 after Van Buren (7-7, 0-1) had taken the lead minutes earlier.
“The way they were playing us, we went to a different offensive look,” Tigers boys basketball coach Jason McMahan said. “We knew Aaron would get some looks in that.
“They had busted our rhythm. We wanted to get the rhythm back, and we knew those were shots Aaron could make.”
Ryan Pearson and Quinton Ray helped Van Buren put together an early 11-2 run to start the second half, and Ray’s 3-pointer gave the Pointers a 34-29 cushion with 3 minutes, 44 seconds left in the third quarter. That’s when Ward suddenly found his hot hand.
He scored seven of Bentonville’s next 10 points, including the go-ahead bucket after getting a good pass from Austin Haggard, whose 3-pointer pulled the Tigers within one. Nick Smith then added a bucket to give Bentonville a 41-38 lead going into the fourth quarter.
“It was a good finish and good movement by Aaron,” McMahan said of Ward’s bucket. “I think Austin Haggard made a great play to get dribble penetration, then dumped it off.
“Obviously, Aaron stepped up and played some big minutes and made some big plays.”
Van Buren kept things close and made it a one-possession game on five different occasions in the final eight minutes. Bentonville couldn’t rest easy until a bucket by Smith and free throws by Tyrik Dixon and Haggard made it a 57-49 game with 45.6 seconds left.
“I thought we did some things to help that, too,” Van Buren coach Randy Loyd said. “We turned the ball over a few times, especially on one instance when we’re down three. We turned the ball over, then gave up an offensive rebound down there.”
Smith finished with 19 points, and Austin Heard added 15 for Bentonville. Ray paced Van Buren with 18 points, while Pearson chipped in 15.