K.J. Hill scored 15 of his 24 game-high points in the second quarter as No. 3 North Little Rock broke away from Little Rock Central for an 86-55 victory at Charging Wildcats Arena on Friday night.
Central jumped out to an early 12-5 advantage, but the Charging Wildcats had surged ahead 20-17 by the end of the first quarter. North Little Rock led 51-35 advantage at halftime.
"We didn't hit the panic button and that was good," North Little Rock Coach Johnny Rice said. "We missed some free throws and KeVaughn [Allen] missed two dunks, but we still had that feeling we were all right. But it wasn't the way we wanted to start."
North Little Rock (15-5, 6-1) erased any doubt of an upset by scoring the first nine points of the third quarter.
Central (5-13, 3-4), which was coming off a 20-point victory at Marion on Tuesday, was led by Jacobia Platt's 18 points and Cameron Johnson's 9. The Tigers could not make their good start hold up Friday night.
Hill, who was held to one point in the first quarter, had 10 points in the first three minutes of the second quarter. Allen scored 15 of his 19 points in the first half. Adrian Moore scored 10 of his 12 points in the first two quarters.
"We scored 51 points in the first half, but I couldn't have cared less about that," Rice said. "I was more concerned about the 35 we had given up. We got into a fast game, which we wanted, but our defense just wasn't there. I asked the guys to play better defense in the second half and I think we did."
CENTRAL (55)
Wilbert 2 1-2 7, Platt 7 3-6 18, McFadden 3 0-0 6, C. Johnson 4 0-0 9, Means 2 0-2 4, Rogers 3 0-0 7, B. Johnson 0 0-0 0, Jackson 0 0-0 0, Richardson 1 2-2 4, Perry 0 0-0 0, Eggerson 0 0-0 0, T. Moore 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 6-12 55.
NORTH LITTLE ROCK (86)
Ricks 1 0-0 3, Hill 9 3-5 24, Duckworth 3 2-2 10, Allen 7 5-6 19, A. Moore 4 3-6 12, Dunkham 1 0-0 2, Dobbins 2 0-0 4, Taylor 2 0-0 4, Gunnett 0 1-2 1, Walker 1 1-4 4, Dickerson 1 0-0 3, Bryant 0 0-0 0, Wade 0 0-0 0. Totals 31 15-25 86.
Central;17 18 14 6 -- 55
North Little Rock;20 31 26 9 -- 86
Three-point goals -- Central 5 (Wilbert 2, Platt, C. Johnson, Rogers). NLR 9 (Hill 3, Duckworth 2, A. Moore, Ricks, Walker, Dickerson). Total fouls -- Central 17, NLR 15. Fouled out -- Taylor.
Sports on 01/31/2015