HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL

Wildcats’ stars lead road charge

CABOT - North Little Rock needed every one of its offensive weapons Monday night.

Sophomore Adrian Moore sparked a third-quarter surge and Anton Beard and KeVaughn Allen combined to score 13 points in the fourth quarter as the No. 2 Charging Wildcats outlasted Cabot 58-45 in a 7A/6A-East Conference game.

Cabot (13-7, 4-4) led for most of the first three quarters, but the Panthers’ shooting went cold, hitting 3 of 13 shots from the floor in the final eight minutes while North Little Rock (18-1, 8-0) was 7 of 8 during the fourth quarter.

“I thought our effort was there on the defensive end in the first half,” North Little Rock Coach Johnny Rice said. “Offensively, Cabot was in the zone, packing it in. We never attacked. We never got into the 1-and-1 in the first half. If you’re not getting into the 1-and-1 with the way the game is called now, you’re just not attacking the rim.”

Beard, a University of Arkansas signee, scored 12 of his 15 points in the second half. Allen, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Sophomore of the Year for 2013, scored 7 of his 13 points in the game’s final 6:38.

Cabot made the game interesting thanks to senior forward Nick Thomas, who scored a team-high 13 points, and junior guard Jake Ferguson, who added 10 points, 9 rebounds and 3 steals.

“We battled,” Cabot Coach Jerry Bridges. “You just got to give North Little Rock credit. They were relentless in what they were going to do. They had a game plan and they finally just wore us down.”

And it took the Charging Wildcats every bit of three quarters before they took the lead for good.

Tied at 38-38 entering the final quarter, Juwan Eldridge opened the final quarter with a three-pointer - only the second three-pointer the Charging Wildcats hit all night - and Allen followed with a three-point play. Cabot responded with back-to-back putbacks from Adolfo Iglesias and Ferguson, but the Panthers’ attempt at an upset began to fade when Ferguson missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 5:37 to play.

Instead of having a free throw to tie, the Panthers saw the visitors score the next 14 points.

“During that fourth quarter, we missed two front ends of 1-and-1s in the fourth quarter when it was a two- and fourpoint game,” Bridges said. “They score after both misses and now they’re gapping us. I just think that hurt us.”

Before the fourth quarter, Moore’s play in the final 4;33 of the third quarter turned into a key moment for the Charging Wildcats.

Moore hit a point-blank shot to pull North Little Rock to within 32-30 and then came up with a steal and dunk at the 2:47 mark for the tie. After a Cabot turnover, junior K.J. Hill hit two free throws and North Little Rock never trailed again, although the Panthers did tie the game three more times in the third quarter.

Moore’s heroics came with Beard and Allen out of the game. Beard collected his fourth foul with 3:59 left in the third quarter. Allen left the game at the same time after he suffered taking a knee to his thigh.

“We had some guys step up,” Rice said of Moore, Hill and Eldridge, who combined for 26 points. “At one time this season, we were only playing seven or eight guys. Now we’re playing nine and 10. … Adrian’s not a guy who’s going to power over you. He’s not going to have his back to the basket. He’s a guy who’s at his best when we’re in transition. He’s a slasher and he did a good job when we put him down on the baseline tonight.”

Allen made a one-handed running dunk with 20.6 seconds left in the first half to give North Little Rock a 22-21 lead, but Cabot scored the final five points of the half when Iglesias hit a layup and senior Hunter York made a steal at midcourt and banked in a running three-pointer at the buzzer.

Cabot hit 14 of its first 24 field-goal attempts, but finished 17 of 38. North Little Rock was 24 of 43.

Sports, Pages 16 on 02/11/2014

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