PEA RIDGE -- Jennifer Anthony did a little bit of everything to lift Pea Ridge past Gentry 41-33 at Blackhawk Gymnasium.
After losing four of its last five, including two to unbeaten West Fork, the Lady Blackhawks needed a remedy and it came in the form of Tuesday's 3A/4A District 1 victory.
Girls
Pea Ridge 41,
Gentry 33
Gentry^6^6^15^6^—^33
Pea Ridge^10^7^11^13^—^41
Gentry (9-7): Boss 18, Hays 7, Fuamatu 5, Hosteter 3.
Pea Ridge (11-7): Anthony 18, Whatley 8, Davis 5, Dayberry 4, Fletcher 4, Socha 2.
Boys
Pea Ridge 71,
Gentry 59
Gentry^8^19^18^14^—^59
Pea Ridge^22^13^24^12^—^71
Gentry (7-7): Morris 15, Cripps 13, Folker 13, Hammond 10, Martin 6, Faulkenberry 2.
Pea Ridge (17-1): Hall 19, Thomas 17, Rose 11, Wright 10, Church 7, Caudill 4, Holtgrewe 3.
"We haven't reached 40 (points) in about four games, so this is a big night for us," said Pea Ridge first-year coach Heath Neal. "We were up five with a minute, 40 (seconds) to go against West Fork (on Friday) and had two critical turnovers that led to two threes that got us beat (31-29).
"So we needed this. We needed to close out a win like this."
Anthony was 3 of 5 from 3-point range and finished with a team-high 18 points. She scored 12 to help spur a pair of second half runs that put the game away. But that wasn't all. Anthony, who is verbally committed to sign with Ottawa (Kan.) University, grabbed seven rebounds, made five steals and dished out four assists.
The all-out, all-the-time senior guard even ended up in the third row of the bleachers after chasing down a loose ball. She also helped the Lady Blackhawks secure the ball down the stretch, including one possession when they milked more than two minutes off the clock before Hollyn Davis hit a wide-open Alli Whatley for an easy bucket from the block.
"I wanted this win," Anthony said. "We've been struggling offensively and we were pumped up after losing by two points to West Fork. We wanted that win, too, but didn't get it, so we came out pretty fired up for this one."
No kidding. Pea Ridge (11-7 overall, 5-3 in district) never trailed despite the Lady Pioneers' (9-7, 4-7) best efforts.
Led by seven straight points by Anthony, the Lady Blackhawks turned a 17-12 halftime lead into a 28-16 lead. But Gentry trimmed the deficit to 28-27 by closing out the third quarter with an 11-0 run, including a three-point play by junior Hannah Boss, who finished with 18 points.
Pea Ridge answered by opening the fourth quarter with an 11-0 run of its own behind back-to-back buckets by Avery Dayberry and five straight points by Anthony. The run was fueled by three straight steals by the Lady Blackhawks, who are limiting opponents to 33 points per game.
"I'm a firm believer that our defense keeps us in it," Neal said. "Our defense has got to produce some sort of offense off of transition buckets for us to be successful because we go through lulls where we can't shoot it."
Neal also said "Whatley gave us a spark off the bench with eight points, and we won by eight, so she was a huge factor."
BOYS
Pea Ridge 71, Gentry 59
The Blackhawks (17-1, 10-0) used balanced scoring and held off a second half surge by Gentry (7-7, 5-5) to win their 12th game in a row.
A bucket by Austin Morris and two free throws by Cole Cripps cut Pea Ridge's lead to 52-45 late in the third quarter. But Pea Ridge's Matt Thomas scored all seven points during a 7-0 run to finish out the quarter and the Blackhawks led by double digits the rest of the way.
Joey Hall's 19 points led four Blackhawks in double figures as Thomas had 17, Kobe Rose had 11 and Cole Wright added 10. Gentry also placed four players in double figures led by Morris' 15 points. Cripps and Evan Folker had 13 points apiece and Ethan Hammond had 10.
Sports on 01/18/2017