SPRINGDALE — Springdale had every intention of giving 7A/6A-West Conference leader Fayetteville a run for its money Friday with a student section in full force, a packed house on hand and a team ready from the word go.
Boys
FAYETTEVILLE 62, SPRINGDALE 42
Fayetteville 11 9 20 22 — 62
Springdale 9 13 5 15 — 42
Fayetteville (15-3, 5-0): Watkins 21, McCullough 11, Paschke 9, Waitsman 7, Williamson 7, Smith 7.
Springdale (11-7, 3-2): Scharlau 13, Eckwood 13, Stark 8, Gause 4, Johnson 2, Wymer 2.
Springdale kept up its end of the bargain for the first half in Bulldog Gymnasium. With Alex Scharlau hitting shot after shot and Fayetteville finding its shots hard to come by, the Red’Dogs sent their rival Purple’Dogs into the halftime lockerroom facing their first deficit of the conference season.
Then Fayetteville woke up.
Sparked by suffocating defense throughout the third quarter, the Purple Bulldogs went from stagnant to sizzling in a blink of an eye and ran away with a 62-42 win against Springdale on Friday. Fayetteville trailed 22-20 at the half, but outscored the Red’Dogs 20-5 in the third quarter and never looked back.
“What I told them at halftime is you thought it was going to be easy I guess, but everywhere you go you’re going to get everybody’s best,” Fayetteville coach Kyle Adams said. “Everywhere you go everybody wants to beat you right now, and we had a lot of seniors who stepped up.
“I think that was the trick, we had a lot of seniors who showed a lot of leadership and that showed up on the floor.”
Springdale (11-7, 3-2 7A/6A-West) had success slowing down Fayetteville’s offense in the first half, forcing eight turnovers while managing to stay even in rebounding despite giving up size inside. But despite a late push in the second quarter to take the lead into intermission, the Red Bulldogs’ own offensive woes in the third quarter would turn into their own worst enemy.
“They turned up the heat, they turned up the pressure and I don’t think we handled it well,” Springdale coach Brad Stamps said. “Their physical play was the difference in the second half, maybe. They imposed their will a little bit and the credit goes to them.
“They’re down two at half and they come out and make plays and we couldn’t get stops when we needed them.”
Manuale Watkins led Fayetteville (15-3, 5-0) with 21 points, 13 of which came after halftime. Tyler McCullough added 11 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots.
Scharlau finished with 13 for Springdale.