Johnson's 32 propels LR Central past rival

What Cameron Johnson does for the Little Rock Central boys' basketball team is not a surprise to Coach Oliver Fitzpatrick.

Johnson finished with 32 points in the Tigers' 73-66 victory over North Little Rock on Friday night in Little Rock.

"That's what Cam does," Little Rock Central Coach Oliver Fitzpatrick said. "He's a scorer."

Little Rock Central (11-7) moved into a tie with North Little Rock (9-9) at 3-2 in the 7A/6A-East Conference. The two teams play again Feb. 26 at North Little Rock.

Johnson scored 15 first-half points to help the Tigers to a 38-30 halftime lead.

The Charging Wildcats cut the lead to 46-43 with less than three minutes left in the third quarter, but Johnson had a dunk and hit a three-pointer to help push the Tigers' lead to 53-43. Johnson's dunk gave the Tigers a 55-46 lead going into the fourth quarter.

Senior guard Adrian Moore, who finished with 15 points for North Little Rock, was injured on a dunk attempt with 3:42 to play. Moore went up for a dunk, hung on the rim, then fell backwards and slammed his head on the baseline. He was laying face down for about 20 minutes as emergency personnel and trainers attended to him.

North Little Rock Coach Johnny Rice said Friday night that Moore, who was taken off the court on a stretcher but was moving all of his extremities and gave the crowd a thumbs up signal, was transported to University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.

The game was delayed for about 30 minutes before play resumed at the 3:42 mark. From there, the Charging Wildcats tried to get back into the game, getting as close as 71-66 with 33 seconds left on Jarvis Ricks' three-point attempt.

But North Little Rock couldn't overcome the loss of Moore and the play of Johnson and Raquawn Rogers for Central. Rogers finished with 14 points, 13 rebounds and 12 blocked shots.

"We turned it over a few times," Rice said. "They went and got on runs and turned them into points. We had opportunities. Their players are good."

Morris Talbert had 15 points for North Little Rock.

Sports on 01/30/2016

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