5A-CENTRAL BOYS

LR Fair's spurt enough for easy victory

Little Rock Fair Coach Charlie Johnson is still waiting for his War Eagles to play a full game.

"I think we played pretty good in spurts,'' he said. "We still haven't put a full game together."

The War Eagles (14-4, 4-2) had enough to topple Little Rock McClellan 57-35 on the Crimson Lions' home court Tuesday.

The spurt that put the game away was right after halftime.

Leading 28-18 at the break, the War Eagles made eight consecutive field goals in the first 5½ minutes of the second half and were 2 of 2 from the free-throw line to expand their lead to 44-21.

The War Eagles' big three of Nick Jones, Jarrick Cole and Kris Bankston did the work. The 6-foot-7 Bankston started the run with a baseline jumper and ended it with a pair of free throws. In the middle, Cole had eight points, all on jump shots, and Jones had a pair of layups.

In that time frame, McClellan (7-11, 3-3) was 2 of 8 from the field and had 3 turnovers, an issue all night for the Lions.

"That is what I said. We play in spurts,'' Johnson said. "If we ever get 32 minutes of spurts, we are going to be hard to deal with. We are trying to get there.

"They came out with a little more fire tonight. The other night when we played Mills, you could see it in their eyes. Game started off bad, we fell into doldrums and just stayed there.

"Maybe tonight was the wake-up call. We needed this a lot."

Cole led the War Eagles with 21 points. Bankston had 13, and Jones finished with eight.

Raymond Harris led the Lions with 15 points, and Karson Hayes scored 14.

McClellan started well, hitting its first three shots for a 7-4 lead, but Fair closed the period on a 9-1 run. The Lions never got closer than four in the second half.

McClellan had six first-quarter turnovers and 10 in the first half. It finished with 16.

Sports on 01/27/2016

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