SPRINGDALE -- Somebody forgot to tell Bentonville's boys they were supposed to be in trouble Monday afternoon.
The Tigers had a one-point halftime lead, and Van Buren had the ball when junior forward Tyler Robinson picked up his fourth personal foul. His replacement, Ben Smith, already had three fouls called on him in the first half.
Class 7A State Tournament
Boys
Bentonville 63, Van Buren 48
Van Buren^15^10^3^20^—^48
Bentonville^11^15^18^19^—^63
Van Buren (22-6): Smith 17, Dye 11, Hawkins 6, Salisbury 5, Beckner 5, Johnson 2, Barlow 2.
Bentonville (20-7): Monk 42, Hemphill 7, Smith 6, Loy 3, Carter 3, Robinson 2.
Instead, Bentonville went on a 16-2 run to put its lead out of reach, and the Tigers earned the first state championship appearance in school history with a 63-48 victory in the Class 7A state semifinals at Wildcat Arena.
"We just played through it," Bentonville coach Jason McMahan said. "Ben Smith was so big for us defensively and was in great position, making it hard with catches for Mitchell Smith.
"Defense did it for us because we were in a lot of foul trouble. Ben played with a lot of fouls himself. It's funny because in September and October, we said for us to make it into the finals, we would have to be the best at being in position and small details. That's what did it, great positioning."
While Smith took care of the defense, Malik Monk went into an attack mode and took control of the Tigers' offense. The junior guard, who surpassed 2,000 points in his high school career Saturday against Springdale High, finished with 42 points -- 26 of those in the second half when Bentonville (20-7) pulled away.
Monk had a bucket and a layup to start the second half, then he followed a Rustin Hawkins bucket with seven straight points. That included two free throws when Van Buren coach Randy Loyd was whistled for a technical during the Pointers' final time out. Jordan Hemphill's 3-pointer gave Bentonville a 42-27 lead with 1 minute, 57 seconds left in the third quarter.
"I was just my teammates set me up well and put me in a position to score that many points," Monk said. "The state championship is the main point. In the first half, I was just rushing things and not taking my time. My teammates set me up in the second half, and I was able to knock down some shots. I was just trying to get into the lane and take it in."
Van Buren (22-6) started the fourth quarter with six straight Mitchell Smith points and pulled within 44-34 with 6:26 remaining, but the Pointers couldn't get any closer. Monk closed out his scoring with a dunk, then Ben Smith's dunk gave the Tigers their biggest lead, 61-44, with 1:24 remaining.
"Who knows what happened," Loyd said. "We had a flat third quarter, and they didn't. It was one of those deals when it happened.
"I've been in this game long enough to know that this level, the semifinals of the state tournament, you can't have a bad quarter because you'll get beat. If I had an answer, we could have fixed it. Malik Monk is so good that it's hard to come up with something to contain him a little bit."
Monk was the only player in double figures for Bentonville, which will play for the Class 7A state championship at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Bank of the Ozarks Arena in Hot Springs. Mitchell Smith had 17 and Jaylyn Dye 11 for Van Buren.
Henry Apple can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWAHenry
Sports on 03/10/2015