Fayetteville’s Sydney Crockett had a phenomenal performance offensively last week, but Lady Bulldogs coach Vic Rimmer is more amazed by her defense.

“Sydney’s one of those kids that does everything,” Rimmer said. “She gets offensive rebounds, she gets to the rim, and she shoots threes. Something what doesn’t get published very much is that she has already taken 12 charges this season.”

As part of the new rules prohibiting hand-checking instituted by the colleges and high schools this season was also another rule to benefit the offense on the block-charge call, which states that a defensive player is not permitted to move into the path of an offensive player once they have begun their upward motion with the ball to attempt a field goal or a pass.

“Nowadays, that’s a 50/50 call,” Rimmer said. “That’s an amazing stat. She’s taken more than that, but the call doesn’t get made all of the time. The willingness that she has to do that for her team is a huge stat.”

Crockett also draws a variety of defensive assignments during the season.

“She can guard a post when needed,” Rimmer said. “Friday night, at a couple of different junctures in the game, we had her on Springdale’s best shooter. She’s a versatile kid. She’s invaluable to us. We have to have her on the floor if she’s physically capable of being out there. She’s developed into a solid leader for us.”

Offensively, Crockett scored 49 points in two wins for the Lady Bulldogs last week. She scored 21 points in Fayetteville’s 59-47 win Friday against rival Springdale High, and she poured in 28 points Tuesday in a 58-52 win against Siloam Springs. She is this week’s 7A/6A-West Conference Girls Player of the Week.

“She’s one of those kids that stays every day after practice and says ‘coach, help me with my shot.’ She wants to shoot extra,” Rimmer said. “She puts in the extra time. She loves basketball and wants to the best she can be.”

Crockett started emerging late in the conference last season. She finished tied for second in scoring in conference play for the Lady Bulldogs with 64 points, but 40 of those came in the final five conference games.

“About midway last year during her sophomore season, she really settled in,” Rimmer said. “Sydney is a very go-getter on both ends of the court. She made a lot of mistakes last year as a sophomore trying to do too much. She started understanding about midway of the conference season how to make things happen at our level.”

MONK HITS FOR 43

Bentonville boys coach Jason McMahan has seen more than his share of great scoring performances in his relatively short coaching career.

Friday night, he saw another one.

Malik Monk scorched the net for 43 points in Bentonville’s 73-51 win against Siloam Springs, earning him this week’s Boys Player of the Week honors.

Monk canned 11 of 14 from 3-point range, ending an incredible night.

“It was,” McMahan said. “Anybody that can hit 11 threes is quite an accomplishment. It was an amazing night shooting, especially in three quarters.”

With the Tigers up 64-40 after three quarters, Monk’s night was over despite being just two points away from the school record of 44 points set by Nick Smith last year in a 72-57 win against Springdale Har-Ber.

“My assistants told me that he was one basket away from breaking the school record,” McMahan said. “That was set in a close game where we needed every one of those points. To that point, we needed all of those points by Malik, but anything past that would have just been to break the record. He’ll have his time. That’s the confidence we have in him that there will be other days like that for him.”

Monk started the week off on a good note as well with 20 points in a 71-45 win against Rogers. Monk drilled his first four 3-pointers in the game and finished 4 of 6 from beyond the arc.

“Tuesday night, the game against Rogers was amazing, the way he shot the ball that game,” McMahan said. “He started the game 4 of 4 on threes in the first quarter. That’s what makes him amazing sometimes. He could just not shoot a three one night and have six dunks, and be dominant and then go 11-for-13 one night.”

In addition to Monk’s performance on Friday night and Smith’s 44 points last season, McMahan has been able to sit back and enjoy some other notable scoring performances as well when Smith scored 40 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead Bentonville to a 79-56 win against Fort Smith Northside. He was also the coach at Siloam Springs in 2009 when Coleson Rakestraw scored 44 points against Harrison and 42 points against Greenbrier.

“I’ve got to coach some pretty incredible kids that have done some pretty cool things,” McMahan said. “Each of them is what we needed at that time.”

FOCUSED FROM LOSS

The Fayetteville Lady Bulldogs were looking to come out of the Christmas break with a lot of momentum heading into conference play.

They won the First Arkansas Bail Bonds Tournament in Mountain Home with wins against Greenwood and North Little Rock. Their own Bulldog Classic was postponed to early January, and the Lady Bulldogs lost to Little Rock Hall and to rival Springdale.

Friday, they got some revenge with the 59-47 win against Springdale.

“I’m not one to put so much emphasis on a single game throughout the year, but I certainly sensed that the kids were excited going into that one,” Rimmer said. “I tried to keep their focus on the game plan, but I did sense a little bit of difference. It could have been that.”

More than anything, Rimmer liked the way his team finished the game on Friday night after letting a late lead slip away the last meeting against Springdale.

“We had a late lead,” Rimmer said. “That was one thing that we did better as a team and that was finishing that game off Friday night; taking care of the basketball, hitting free throws, not turning the ball over and getting stops when we needed them.”