Artis' experience helps push Warriors to upset

Dayton Artis, Little Rock Hall's lone senior, did all he could to lift the Warriors to a 55-45 victory over Little Rock Parkview on Friday night on the Patriots' home floor.

Artis, a 6-0 point guard, scored 13 and had numerous assists as he broke the second-ranked Patriots' pressure, which grew from the front court to full court by the start of the second half, and led his team to its biggest victory of the season.

"He is our lone senior and he has been steady for us all along,'' Hall Coach John Coleman said. "He's been in these battles before. I'm excited for him to get one. It is not the war, but we got him one of the battles. I told him this one was for him. He's been through a lot."

The Warriors (10-9, 4-3 6A-South) started deliberately, running a spread offense and letting Artis break the pressure and attack the basket. Hall scored all of its baskets on layups, offensive rebounds or dunks. The Warriors had 19 field goals right at the hoop and made no baskets outside of 3 feet.

"I couldn't be more pleased with how hard our guys battled,'' Coleman said. "We've lost three games by around six points. We know that we are close. We beat El Dorado. We beat the best two teams in the conference, so we have the feeling that we can play with anybody in the state. The only thing is we might be able to be beat by any team in the state.

"But we've been close. One of our things is if we have done a good job down the stretch we will feel like we have done a good job."

Parkview (16-3, 5-1) trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half and the margin was 28-17 at the break. The Patriots stretched their defense to full court in the second half, and it almost worked.

By the end of the third quarter, Hall's lead was 38-32 and Parkview's pressure appeared to be wearing down the Warriors.

Parkview got within 39-36 with 5:56 left, but Hall went on a 9-1 run over the next 3:14 to rebuilt the cushion. With 2:41 left, Artis connected with Issac Beal on an alley-oop dunk and the Patriots were done.

"What you are seeing is a team growing up before your eyes,'' Coleman said.

Hall led 11-9 after one quarter and was able to slowly build its halftime lead in part because of the Patriots' poor free-throw shooting. At one time in the first half, the Patriots missed nine free throws in a row and were just 1 of 11 with 4:33 left in the half. For the game, Parkview was 9 of 24 from the line. Hall was 13 of 15.

Antonio Smith led the Warriors with 15 points, and Beal had nine. Curtis White led Parkview 13 points and Ryan Pippins had 10.

Sports on 01/30/2016

Upcoming Events