Allyson Twiggs Dyer and Blair Savage-Lansden were tied together because of basketball for several years, but they have taken different paths later in life.
The two were bitter rivals in high school, but became teammates at Arkansas.
Twiggs Dyer put her basketball career behind her quickly after Arkansas lost to Washington in the NCAA Tournament in 1995.
"I left my shoes in the hotel room in Seattle," she said. "I was done. I had played a ton of basketball, and it was a great ride. But I was ready for the next chapter of my life."
That wasn't the case for Savage-Lansden, who opted to stay connected to the sport as a coach after college. She spent several years as a college assistant coach and four seasons as the head women's basketball coach at Memphis.
She was recently named girls basketball coach at John Carroll Catholic High School in Birmingham, Ala.
But both agreed their time with basketball in high school and college was special.
Twiggs Dyer enjoyed lots of success at Gentry, leading the Lady Pioneers to a state championship in 1988 and a 34-1 finish.
"It was some of the best times of my life, playing high school and college basketball," she said. "We had a wonderful run in high school. I remember we went 94-6 in my career. When you grow up in a small town like Gentry there's not a lot to do. So we spent most of our evenings playing pick-up basketball games at the gym on Main Street."
She and the Lady Pioneers clashed with Benton County rival Gravette, led by Savage-Lansden, on several occasions that season, but won each time.
"We played them I believe five times," Twiggs Dyer said. "They hated us, and we hated them. Lamar beat them in the state semifinals, or we would have played them for a sixth time."
The two rivals, separated by only 15 miles of Arkansas 59, obviously knew each other extremely well. But another oddity was that many of the top players on each team blended together to form an AAU team during the summer of 1987.
"We finished fifth in the nation and had a lot of fun," Twiggs Dyer said.
Savage-Lansden recalled moving to Gravette prior to her junior year of high school and how her basketball teammates helped her transition to a new school. She also remembered the tough games with Gentry.
"I lived in Dover from my seventh-grade to 10th-grade year and then moved to Gravette," she said. "It's hard moving to a new school, so my teammates were great and very special to me.
"There were some tough battles and some great basketball."
Savage-Lansden went on to become a standout at Arkansas. She finished with 1,072 points, 675 rebounds and 233 assists in her career and currently ranks among the top 25 in each category in UA history. She was honored in 2013 as a Southeastern Conference Legend at the SEC women's basketball tournament.
"Honestly that was a surprise, but it was fun seeing it through the eyes of your kids," she said. "It was all done first class."
Twiggs Dyer got away from basketball as a career and is currently the executive director of Visit Rogers, which is part of the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce. Before that, she was director of the Fayetteville Convention and Visitors Bureau for nine years. Her 16-year-old son, Spencer Brown, has also been bitten by the basketball bug.
"Now I rebound for my son," she said. "Once in a while back in the day I could beat him at H-O-R-S-E. I'm smart enough I don't play him anymore. He wants to play college basketball. That's his goal, so we're doing everything we can to help him reach that goal."
Savage-Lansden is also enjoying life with her 8-year-old twin daughters, Madeleine and Delaney. She's not sure whether there's a return to college coaching in her future or not.
"I'm not closing the door, but I'm not kicking it either," she said. "I enjoy my weekends and time with the girls. But you never know what the future holds."
Sports on 07/06/2014