FORT SMITH — Bobby Portis was a bear Friday night.
Portis scored a game-high 18 points as Little Rock Hall beat Fort Smith Northside 59-47 at Kaundart-Grizzly Fieldhouse.
The Arkansas Razorbacks signee started off quickly, scoring eight points in the first half to help the Warriors take a 27-15 lead into halftime.
Hall slowly built its lead in the second half and fought off a fourth-quarter push by the Grizzlies to pull away.
“We have a lot of history with Northside with the Coke Classic, so we knew it was going to be a real tough battle coming in here to get a win,” Little Rock Hall Coach Jon Coleman said.
Northside (14-7, 5-2 7A/6ACental) made its late run with the help of 3 three-pointers by Tyler Triplett, who had a team-high 11 points.
A basket by Joe Dye cut Hall’s lead to 49-42 in the fourth quarter, but the Warriors (13-5, 5-0 7A/6A-Central) pulled away thanks to Portis’ play inside.
“Our goal was to be up by double digits at halftime,” Coleman said. “We didn’t quite do that, but when they made their runs I thought our guys handled them and stayed with it.”
Portis scored 10 points in the second half to help close out the Grizzlies.
“Bobby’s job is to control the glass and to get us some easy baskets,” Coleman said. “We knew it was going to be tough with their bigs, but they are young. He did a great job.”
Hall’s Roy Owens helped out with 10 points, and Anthony Black and Javan Perry scored nine each.
Northside found itself trailing just 13-8 after the first quarter, but the Warriors spread it around in the second quarter with five different players scoring as Hall out scored the Grizzlies 14-7 to take a 12-point lead into halftime.
“We wanted to come in here with a lot of intensity and play as well as we can,” Coleman said. “We were able to do that.”
Sports, Pages 26 on 01/26/2013