Fort Smith Northside made sure it didn’t let another victory against a school from Pulaski County slip through its fingers on Friday night.
Joe Dye scored a team-high 16 points and the Grizzlies withstood a late comeback attempt by Little Rock Hall to pull out a 52-46 victory at George Cirks Arena.
Tyler Triplett scored 11 points for Northside (14-6, 5-2 7A/6A-Central), which shot 50 percent from the field (20 of 40) and out rebounded Hall 33-25. Stephon Barrett finished with 10 points, 7 rebounds and 5 blocked shots.
“We were able to close the deal this time,” Northside Coach Eric Burnett said. “We feel we let one slip away last week against Parkview. Some of the best basketball in the state is played right here in Little Rock, but for us to come in here and get a win like this is huge, very huge, for this team.”
A week ago, top-ranked Parkview escaped with a 50-48 victory at Northside, a game in which the Grizzlies led by as many as eight points in the fourth quarter before faltering down the stretch. Northside took a seven-point lead into the fourth quarter Friday but had an answer for every Hall rally.
“I’ve been preaching to these kids that we have to finish games,” Burnett said. “We have a tendency to let leads slip away, but I told these kids that we have to make plays if we’re going to win. Whenever you play Hall or Parkview, you’ve got to come with it, and I thought that’s exactly what we did.”
The same didn’t hold true for Hall.
The Warriors made 14 of 46 shots from the floor, including 5 of 20 in the first half, as they suffered their second consecutive defeat. Hall (13-5, 5-2) was coming off an emotional loss to Parkview on Tuesday and was hoping to bounce back, but the Warriors never seemed in sync. Whenever Hall would get some things going offensively, Northside usually had a response.
“We just didn’t have it in this one,” Hall Coach Jon Coleman said. “Coming into the week, we knew we’d have two very tough games. We just wanted these guys to come out and play hard, and I thought we did that, but we just couldn’t get over the hump it seemed.
“Northside is a very sound team, and they always play us hard. They just got the best of us in this one.”
Hall led 7-5 early on before consecutive baskets by Dye and Barron gave the Grizzlies a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. Northside led by as many as 12 in the second half before Hall used a fourth-quarter run to get to within 36-32 with 4:49 left in the game.
Northside answered with a quick seven-point rally that allowed it to stay a step ahead the rest of the way.
Kaylon Tappin scored 25 points to lead Hall.
Sports, Pages 24 on 02/01/2014