CONWAY — Little Rock Hall’s strong first quarter meant the expected early 7A/6A-Central Conference clash never materialized, as the Warriors defeated Conway 68-34 on Tuesday night.
The Warriors (9-3, 2-0 7A/6ACentral) scored the game’s first 14 points and were never threatened. They led 24-6 after one quarter, and 33-8 during the second. Their lead swelled to 40 points in the final minutes.
“Our goal was to come our with a lot of intensity and just play as hard as we could,” Little Rock Hall Coach Jon Coleman. “Fortunately, we made a few shots early and that allowed us to kind of get going.”
6-10 Arkansas signee Bobby Portis led the way for the Warriors with 18 points and eight rebounds. Portis also had several blocked shots and two emphatic dunks as the Wampus Cats (10-4, 1-1) had no answer for him inside.
Gregg Easter opened the scoring with an 18-footer. Javon Perry followed with a three-pointer and a putback to give the Warriors a 7-0 lead less than two minutes into the game. Easter hit a three from the corner, and after a steal he passed to Portis for a layup. Portis tipped in his own miss for a 14-0 lead. Adrian Moore finally got Conway on the board with a free throw at the 2:49 mark, but Perry then hit another three for a 17-1 lead.
Conway and Little Rock Hall are in the same conference for the first time in many years. Coleman, who was a longtime assistant at Hall under George Cirks, recalled many hotly contested games at Conway.
“Our guys are not old enough to remember when Hall and Conway were in the same conference,” Coleman said. “I was at Hall during that time. In that old gym across the way, we had some battles.”
Perry finished with 16 points for Little Rock Hall. Taylor led Conway with 10 points, including two threepointers in the final minutes, as the Wampus Cats had their six-game winning streak snapped.
Sports, Pages 23 on 01/09/2013