Parkview pours it in, pours it on

LITTLE ROCK — I.J. Ready missed his first field-goal attempt Friday night and not much else.

Ready, Little Rock Parkview’s 5-11 senior guard, hit five three-pointers and finished with 23 points as the Patriots mauled Fort Smith Northside 83-50 in a 7A/6ACentral game at Charles Ripley Arena.

Parkview (10-1, 4-0) hit 31 of 52 shots, including 9 of 18 from three-point range that left the Grizzlies (12-7, 4-1) little chance of success.

“I don’t want to jinx it,” Parkview Coach Al Flanigan said. “I.J. and Anton [Beard] are really shooting the ball well now. But we’ve really worked on it. They’re really focused now.”

Northside was within 11-9 five minutes into the game, but the Patriots outscored the Grizzlies 11-2 to close out the quarter and then turned the game into a rout by hitting all nine of their field goal attempts in the second quarter.

“They just kept hitting jumpers left and right on us,” Northside Coach Eric Burnett said. “It felt like it was raining threes.”

Beard scored 17 of his 20 points in the second half. He also had four assists and three rebounds. Junior Jaylen Franklin forward added 18 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists. Franklin scored 13 of his points in the first half.

Jace Richardson led Northside with 12 points while Joe Dye and Benow Stevenson each scored nine points.

Parkview has won its four conference games by an average of 44 points since returning from a 20-day break.

But Flanigan said he still has his concerns.

“One thing that sticks out is our rebounding,” Flanigan said. “In one game we’ll box out and then the next we won’t. When we play big people, if we don’t box out, we’re going to get killed.”