VAN BUREN -- Monday presented a showdown between two of the top juniors the state has to offer in high school basketball. But as folks are finding out, Fayetteville is a team about much more than just one Division-I prospect.
Payton Willis, a top Class of 2016 player from Fayetteville, certainly did his part on Monday, scoring 22 points and sparking an early third-quarter run as the Bulldogs built a 13-point lead. But it took a collective effort to hold off Van Buren 6-11 junior Mitchell Smith and his Pointers' teammates, who fought back with a fury in the fourth quarter before Fayetteville made the key plays and free throws in the closing minutes for a 55-52 win at Pointer Arena.
How They Scored
Boys
Fayetteville 55, Van Buren 52
Fayetteville^8^15^24^8^—^55
Van Buren^8^8^19^17^—^52
Fayetteville (8-1): Willis 22, Breathritt 12, Brown 8, Wymer 5, Carlson 4, Paslay 2, Scott 2.
Van Buren (6-2): Smith 23, Dye 15, Kinney 6, Beckner 4, Hawkins 2, Salisbury 2.
How They Scored
Girls
Fayetteville 62, Van Buren 46
Fayetteville^17^11^19^15^—^62
Van Buren^11^10^8^17^—^46
Fayetteville (5-4): Holmes 22, P. Jones 13, Coulter 8, Morgan 7, Schuldt 7, Mayberry 5.
Van Buren (5-4): Kinney 17, Jennen 10, Sheppard 5, Glassco 4, Sutton 3, McElwee 3, Snowdon 3, Goodwin 1.
"Mitchell's a good player. He's obviously a Division-I player and I think Payton is too," Fayetteville coach Kyle Adams said. "But I thought Drake (Wymer) and Josh Breathritt did a great job for us inside against him just keeping him off his spots. He's just that good, and what hurt us the most was (Jaylynn) Dye getting in transition and getting in deep, and then we've have to help on him.
"But overall I thought we played really well."
Willis nailed a 17-foot jumper the halftime buzzer for a 23-16 lead for Fayetteville (8-1). The junior guard then sparked a Bulldogs' 9-3 run to start the third quarter for their largest lead of the game at 32-19. But Van Buren picked up the pace as Smith got going the rest of the way.
Held to two points in the first half after sitting with three fouls, Smith scored 19 of his 21 points after intermission. Van Buren (6-2) stormed back to within 49-48 when Breathritt snapped a 9-0 Pointers' run with a driving layup with 2 minutes, 45 seconds left. Free throws by Willis and Drew Paslay down the stretch then allowed the Bulldogs to hold off the Pointers at the end.
"We just kind of got off to a slow start and were kind of sluggish," Van Buren coach Randy Loyd said. "But give them credit, they're a good team.
"We did come back and made a run, but Willis hit some big shots. But we've got to understand you can't start like that against a good teams like that early in the game."
Girls
Fayetteville 62, Van Buren 46
Fayetteville turned up the heat on both sides of the court in the third quarter and used a 19-5 run to pull away for the easy nonconference win at Pointer Arena on Monday.
"Two things we did in the third quarter is we played much better defensively and we did a better job with our zone offense," Fayetteville coach Vic Rimmer said. "We didn't do some good things with our zone offense in the tournament (of Champions) that were my fault, but we made some adjustments."
Lauren Holmes stepped up with senior guard Sydney Crockett forced to miss the game with a leg injury. Holmes had a game-high 22-points, including 11 in the third quarter alone.
"We needed that, especially with Sydney out," Rimmer said.
Crockett suffered her injury Saturday, but the extent of the injury is still unknown.
Fayetteville plays West Plains, Mo., on Saturday at a neutral site game in Flippin
Sports on 12/16/2014