MORRILTON - Morrilton used a 25-2 blitz in the third quarter Friday night to overwhelm Huntsville in a 60-35 victory.
Huntsville came into the game with just one league victory, but it led Morrilton, ranked No. 3 in Class 5A, for much of the first half and trailed just 22-20 going into halftime.
“We just didn’t shoot it very well in the first half and couldn’t get our press set,” Morrilton Coach Trent Tipton said. “They did a good job of executing against us.”
Morrilton (20-2, 11-1 5A-West) took control in the third quarter, suffocating the Eagles with its trapping defense as it ripped off 25 consecutive points. Huntsville went nearly a full quarter without scoring.
River Gosvenor split Morrilton defenders and scored with 2:23 left in the first half to give Huntsville a 20-19 lead, but Morrilton regained the lead on Brockman’s three-pointer. Brockman passed to Calvin for an alley-oop to open the second half and Gosvenor answered with a baseline jumper for the Eagles at the 7:10 mark, but Huntsville didn’t score again until 7:30 was left in the game.
A flurry of turnovers in a two-minute span resulted in 12 quick points for the Devil Dogs. Mickey Donald scored in the lane, and then a steal led to a layup by Calvin, who added a free throw. A minute later, Calvin scored from 17 feet and a steal by Jacarius Stewart led to another basket by Calvin. Huntsville made an errant pass, and Calvin capped his personal 10-0 run with a three-pointer to make it 42-22.
Calvin led all scores with 20 points.
Huntsville (12-14, 1-11) controlled the tempo early, as Will Anderson scored all eight of his points in the first half.
Donald scored Morrilton’s first eight points, which helped keep the score close as the rest of his teammates struggled offensively. He finished with 18, with 11 coming in the first quarter.
Sports, Pages 22 on 02/22/2014