The North Little Rock girls dominated the first half and overtime to turn back Fort Smith Northside 56-50 Friday night in a 7A-Central Conference game at the Charging Wildcats arena.
North Little Rock's Amber Hawkison, a 5-5 junior guard, led her team with 15 points, and she hit her third three-pointer with 2:45 left in the extra period to give her team a five-point lead.
Northside, which trailed by as many points as 14 in the first half, never got any closer.
North Little Rock (24-2, 10-2) can clinch the conference's No. 1 seed with a victory at Bryant on Tuesday night. Northside (15-9, 8-4) gets the No. 3 seed with victories against Cabot and Fort Smith Southside next week.
Hawkison's three-pointer in OT was North Little Rock's only field goal in the game's final 11:29. The Lady Wildcats were 3 of 19 from the floor in the second half and overtime.
"Northside's a good team and they played really well defensively," Hawkison said. "But we should have scored more than we did."
North Little Rock overcame a 23-point, 10-rebound effort from Topazia Hawkins, who scored five points in the final 10 seconds to send the game into an extra four minutes.
Hawkins hit a 22-footer with 10 seconds left to pull the Lady Bears to within 46-44. North Little Rock advanced the following possession past midcourt and seemingly had the game won but sophomore Demyla Brown was called for traveling with 2.4 second left.
"Bless her heart," North Little Rock Coach Daryl Fimple said of Brown. "That's a little sophomore for you right there. But she came back and did a great job defensively and she got a huge offensive rebound near the end of the game. And she got fouled and hit some free throws. She kinda made up for it."
Hawkins drove into the right side of the lane and put a running 12-footer than sent the game into overtime.
"I thought Hawkins was unbelievable offensively," Northside Coach Rickey Smith said. "She's still got to learn to play a little defense."
"She's a really good player," Fimple said of Hawkins. "She had 33 against Conway the other night. She had 23 tonight and I thought we did a good job on her."
Threes and frees saved North Little Rock.
The Lady Wildcats were 6 of 12 from three-point range and 26 of 32 from the free-throw line, including 11 of their final 12 shots.
"That's a difference," Fimple said. "When you're struggling offensively and they're a good defensive team and you're having to expend so much energy, it's big to make those free throws."
Hawkinson was 6 of 6 from the line, sophomore Kennedy Tucker (14 points) made 9 of 10 and Brown hit 7 of 8.
"That's what championship teams do," Smith said of North Little Rock's free-throw shooting. "They didn't panic and they hit a lot of free throws. They shot a lot and they were deserving of them. We fouled them and they hit them."
Brown hit two free throws with 3:48 left in overtime and North Little Rock never lost the lead again. Hawkison hit her three-pointer a minute later.
"I was open," Hawkison said. "I felt like it was going to go in when it left my hands, but you never know. For me, it was a good shot to take."
North Little Rock never trailed after the 4:07 mark of the first quarter. Tucker hit a three-pointer to give the Lady 'Cats a 5-4 advantage. It was the first of 12 points for North Little Rock, which saw its lead balloon to as much as 28-14 with 1:42 left in the half.
Aniya Webster and Alexie Evans each finished with 10 points for Northside, which stayed in the game despite hitting only 4 of 28 three-point attempts.
NORTHSIDE (50)
Kinnard 0 0-1 0, Hawkins 9 2-2 23, Bandimere 1 1-2 3, Webster 3 4-7 10, Evans 5 0-0 10, Carey 0 0-0 0, Mays 0 0-0 0, Smith 1 0-0 3, Green 0 1-2 1. Totals 19 8-14 50.
NORTH LITTLE ROCK (56)
Hawkison 3 6-6 15, Ford 0 0-0 0, Sadler 0 0-0 0, McGee 1 0-0 2, Tillman 2 2-2 7, Brown 0 7-8 7, Morris 3 2-4 8, Tucker 2 9-10 14, Neal 1 0-0 3, Pettus 0 0-2 0. Totals 12 26-32 56.
Northside (15-9) 6 14 13 13 4 -- 50
NLR (24-2) 16 16 5 9 10 -- 56
Three-point goals -- Northside 4 (Hawkins 3, Smith); NLR 6 (Hawkison 3, Tillman, Tucker, Neal). Team fouls -- Northside 21, NLR 12. Fouled out -- Evans.
Sports on 02/18/2017