7A/6A-EAST GIRLS

North Little Rock preps with conference victory

7A/6A-EAST GIRLS

NORTH LITTLE ROCK 59, WEST MEMPHIS 44

With no chance of claiming a No. 1 seed for the Class 7A state tournament, North Little Rock's Lady Charging Wildcats did the next best thing.

Junior Kyra Collier scored 8 of her team-high 14 points in the final 2:28 of the second quarter and North Little Rock eventually downed visiting West Memphis 59-44 on Saturday night to claim a share of the 7A/6A-East Conference title.

A night after dropping a 58-50 decision at Little Rock Central that could have given North Little Rock a softer postseason spot, the Lady Charging Wildcats (24-3, 11-2) used a 16-5 advantage on the offensive boards and a 12-5 edge in steals to turn back the Lady Blue Devils (17-10, 7-7).

"I just proud of us because [Friday's] game was such a tough game," said North Little Rock Coach Daryl Fimple, whose team will share the league title with Central and Cabot. "We had the right mentality. We got off to a pretty good start and kind of maintained that."

North Little Rock is scheduled to play its first state tournament game at 1 p.m. on Wednesday. If the Lady Charging Wildcats win, they would play top-ranked Fort Smith Northside in the quarterfinals.

West Memphis closed to within 18-15 after two free throws by Alexus Hamlet with 4:07 left in the first half, but North Little Rock responded by scoring 12 of the next 14 points to take a 30-17 halftime lead..

Collier provided two-thirds of North Little Rock's production in the closing minutes. She hit a layup with 2:28 left that pushed North Little Rock's lead to 21-15. With 58 seconds left before halftime, she knocked down a 10-footer for a 24-15 advantage.

Collier hit another layup with 35 seconds to play and then capped off the quarter with a steal and two free throws at the 25-second mark.

"Last night, we panicked," Fimple said. "Tonight in our pregame, we talked about taking our time offensively. ... Sometimes, we're too anxious to shoot it instead of getting the basketball moving and making teams play defense a little bit longer. ... We've got to figure a way to gear down every once in a while."

West Memphis had one final lunge. The Lady Devils hit their first 3 three-point attempts of the fourth quarter and pulled within 49-40 with 5:29 to play. Bbut a three-point play by North Little Rock freshman Amber Hawkins with 5:14 left all but ended the Lady Devils' chances.

West Memphis hit only 2 of 7 shots the rest of the way.

Amesha Hamlet hit four three-pointers and finished with a game-high 15 points to go with a team-high eight rebounds. Alexus Hamlet added 13 points and six rebounds.

For North Little Rock, Malica Monk finished with 13 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 assists. Hawkins scored 10 points. Halley Hill brought down 10 rebounds while Brogan Jones collected seven rebounds.

North Little Rock held a 37-32 in total rebounds and hit 21 of 58 shots. West Memphis was 14 of 34 from the floor, including a 7 of 16 effort from three-point range.

Sports on 03/01/2015

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