CONWAY — The Arkansas High School All-Star boys basketball game was an actual contest for just a little more than 5 minutes Thursday night.
After that Dayshawn Watkins and his East teammates decided to take over. The former North Little Rock standout hit three consecutive 3-pointers, and things snowballed from there en route to a whopping 98-50 victory over the West at the Farris Center.
Watkins scored 16 of his game-high 18 points in the first seven minutes, including four 3-pointers. His three straight shots beyond the arc was more than enough to snap an 11-11 tie, and Tyson Oliver of Bay added another to give the East a sounding 23-11 lead before the West ended the run on a 3-pointer by Travon Harper of Stephens at the buzzer.
“There’s not much you can do when Dayshawn, which I witnessed in the state finals, goes off like he did,” said Kyle Adams of Fayetteville, who served as one of the West assistant coaches. “He hit those three 3s in a row, and Thomas Alexander hits two or three more.
“Obviously, the East is a talented bunch, and we picked the wrong night not to shoot the ball well. We shot it horribly.”
Watkins’ first 3-pointer gave the East its first lead, 11-8, with 2 minutes, 33 seconds left in the fi rst quarter. The West bounced back and tied it on a 3-pointer by Dedrick Lee of Clarksville, only to have Watkins explode and put the East ahead for good.
The West got as close as 27-17 on a 3-pointer by Kyle Roberts of Mena with 3:26 left in the second quarter before the East took over behind Alexander, another North Little Rock standout. He had a pair of 3-pointers and added a dunk during a 13-0 run, extending the East lead to a whopping 40-19 margin.
“We went through that stretch where we gave up all those points.” said David Ferrell of West Fork, another West assistant coach. “It snowballed, and we couldn’t recover.”
The only thing left after the East led 61-28 at halftime to see if the East could break 100 points in what easily became the most lopsided margin in All-Star history, snapping the West’s 110-74 victory in the 1972 All-Star game. That didn’t happen, despite a couple of late basket attempts even when the clock didn’t run to give the East more time.
Alexander was the only other player to finish in double figures with 13 points as all 15 East players scored at least two points. Harper finished with nine points for the West, which hit only 18 of 72 (25 percent) of its shot attempts.
West 14 7 7 10 12 — 50 East 23 19 19 20 17 — 98 WEST: Lee 6, Heard 3, Farris 2,
Harper 9, Beck 5, Widders 2, Gipson 4, Torres 7, Roberts 3, Lafond 5,
Scott 4.
EAST: Watkins 18, Oliver 5, Toliver 4, Chapman 8, Matthews 2, Buchanan 6, Brady 8, Perry 5, Bailey 5, Ellis 3, Francis 5, Alexander 13, McCleary 6, Leon 7, Burton 3.