SPRINGDALE — Brittany Jurgens raced down the court and drained a 3-pointer, then sank another one 28 seconds later as she was falling down.
Five seconds later, the Springdale High point guard hit a midrange jumper that gave the Lady Bulldogs their first lead over Van Buren since 1-0 in the opening seconds of Friday’s game.
VAN BUREN 51, SPRINGDALE HIGH 45
Van Buren 12 13 11 15 — 51
Springdale 5 8 15 17 — 45
Van Buren (5-11, 1-6): Santillana 18, Sheppard 12, Burgos 6, Johnson 6, Smith 5, Outlaw 2, Glassco 2.
Springdale (6-13, 1-6): Jurgens 18, Dederich 9, Perez 9, McPherson 3, Long 2, Daniels 2, Ponder 2.
All of a sudden, Jurgens’ eight points in 33 seconds put Springdale in position to win its first game since the first week of January. But it wasn’t enough.
Van Buren sank seven free throws over the final 35 seconds to claim a 51-45 win in Bulldog Gymnasium, spoiling Jurgens’ impressive performance and Springdale’s Colors Night in the process.
“It seems like it’s the magic pill, so to speak. When we’re making shots, the game tightens up and we’re winning,” Springdale girls basketball coach Heather Hunsucker said. “And when we’re not making shots, the game seems to stretch away from us a little bit.”
The Lady Bulldogs (6-13, 1-6 7A/6A-West Conference) struggled to get into an offensive rhythm early on, making only five shots in the first half as they fell behind 25-11 toward the end of the second quarter.
But Springdale — and Jurgens in particular — found its groove after Hunsucker challenged her players at halftime to pick up their energy.
Stephanie Long hit a shot that cut Van Buren’s lead to 40-33 with 4 minutes, 20 second remaining. After that, Jurgens got her hot hand, making two 3-pointers and a jumper in less than a minute to give Springdale a 41-40 left with 3:22 left.
“I thought our defense did a good job getting some steals there in that stretch where Brittany was able to score and then we converted on the other end, which was the difference,” Hunsucker said.
Jurgens finished with a team-high 18 points, but Van Buren (5-11, 1-6) rallied back and hit 11 of 12 free-throw attempts over the final 2:33 to earn its first conference win of the season.
The Lady Pointers relied on Maria Santillana, their 6-foot-2 post player, to dominate the paint and offset Jurgen’s big night. The junior finished with a team-high 18 points.
“She’s just coming down and firing. You’ve got to give her credit for hitting them,” Van Buren coach Merrill Mankin said of Jurgen’s 8-0 run in the fourth quarter. “But I just told the girls, ‘Suck it up and hope that a break goes our way.’”