Farmington turns to Thomas for victory

FARMINGTON --

Matt Thomas scored nine of his game-high 22 points in the fourth quarter, including 5 of 5 from the free-throw line, as Farmington handed Maumelle its first conference loss of the season with a 59-56 victory Friday night at Cardinal Arena.

Thomas scored his team's final seven points as the Cardinals (12-8, 3-5 5A-West) avenged a 20-point loss to the Hornets in their first meeting.

"Coach [Beau] Thompson always preaches free throws win games," Thomas said. "It gets annoying, but he's right."

Farmington, which moved into its new arena just a few weeks ago, refused to wilt after trailing by 11 points in the first half, and 16 in the second half. Maumelle (16-5, 7-1) raced to a 22-11 lead with 6:52 left in the second quarter. The Hornets' swarming half-court trap defense gave the Cardinals fits early on.

"I admit I had my doubts the way we were turning it over in the first half," Thompson said. "We went through a stretch in the second quarter where we held them six straight times without scoring, but we kept turning it over and couldn't score.

"We thought we were doing good to be down six at halftime."

Maumelle led 30-24 at halftime and increased the lead to 43-27 on a JB Minix layup with just under three minutes left in the third quarter. Minix led the Hornets with 18 points.

But the Cardinals slowly chipped away at Maumelle's lead. Thomas hit two free throws, and the Cardinals ended the third quarter on a 9-0 run to close within 43-36.

Sophomore Matt Wilson, who scored 13 points for Farmington, opened the fourth with a three-pointer, then followed that with a steal and layup to cut the margin to 43-41. Later in the quarter, Farmington senior Jeremy Mueller, who was held scoreless to that point, drove the lane and was fouled as he hit a layup with 4:42 left. Mueller's free throw tied the score at 47-47.

"I thought Mueller's and-one in the fourth quarter was big," Thompson said. "He was in foul trouble all night, but he got to the block and hit a big shot there."

Farmington's Skyler Barnes, who scored 10 points, gave the Cardinals their first lead on an offensive putback, and they never trailed again. Farmington's Jarred Osnes also hit a three-pointer for a 52-49 lead with 2:12 left.

Maumelle tied the game at 54-54 on Tremont Robinson's off-balance layup, but Thomas was money down the stretch, getting a three-point play, and icing the victory with two free throws with 4.3 seconds left. Maumelle missed a game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer.

"He's a real good option," Thompson said of Thomas' clutch play. "He played a great fourth quarter with four fouls. Not many players are savvy enough to do that."

Sports on 02/07/2015

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