HALL BALL

Pea Ridge senior Joey Hall learned love of the game from older siblings

NWA Democrat-Gazette/MICHAEL WOODS @NWAMICHAELW Joey Hall (44) from Pea Ridge drives to the hoop past Gentry defender Jon Faulkenberry (4) Tuesday, January 17, 2017 during their game at Pea Ridge High School.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/MICHAEL WOODS @NWAMICHAELW Joey Hall (44) from Pea Ridge drives to the hoop past Gentry defender Jon Faulkenberry (4) Tuesday, January 17, 2017 during their game at Pea Ridge High School.

PEA RIDGE -- From the moment he could talk, Joey Hall was destined to be a baller.

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Courtesy Photo

Joey Hall's first word was "ball" so it's no surprise to find him in playing in a basket of basketballs as a toddler.

"Ball was my first word,'" Hall said.

At A Glance

Joey Hall

SCHOOL Pea Ridge

CLASS Senior

HEIGHT 6-2

WEIGHT 160

POSITION Point guard/shooting guard

NOTABLE Has several colleges, such as Baker University in Baldwin City, Kan., and the Univeristy of the Ozarks, interested in his basketball services. After college, Hall hopes to pursue a career as a stock broker. He already owns stock in Amazon.com.

That's no surprise for those close to Pea Ridge's senior point guard. Hall lives, breathes and dreams basketball 24/7/365, and his on-court talents are the result. He's averaging 17.2 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals per game in leading the Blackhawks to a 19-1 overall record and 12-0 mark in 3A/4A District 1 play.

"There's not a guy that comes around too often like him -- that do the things he does," sad Pea Ridge coach Trent Loyd. "You can't just pick up a basketball and do the things he's done. He's put in a ton of work. All of his success has been earned."

Hall can score in a variety of ways -- everything from 3-pointers several steps beyond the arc, to driving the lane for a finger roll -- and seems to take over a game whenever the Blackhawks need a bucket to slow down an opponent's run. Fortunately, the team has plenty of other offensive weapons this season, so his role is more as a catalyst than as the go-to scorer.

"He's got a knack for when we need a bucket," Loyd said. "He does a great job of letting the game come to him and he has that feel of when it's his time and he needs to go get that bucket. His basketball IQ is extremely high."

Like his first word, it's something that has been part of Hall's life since he was a young dribbler. He learned it from watching and playing against his older siblings, Jacob Hall and Jessica Hall-Kelly, who both starred at Pea Ridge before playing college hoops.

Jacob is four-years older -- and Jacob will say he's "stronger," too -- than Joey, so their pick-up games on the driveway hoop have always been one-sided.

"There was a lot of crying from Joey," Jacob said. "He begged to play one-on-one and he hated to lose. We started when he was about in second grade, so I won all the time. He would never let us stop without fighting, or him winning a game."

Their court battles took place on their 40-acre farm in Garfield or at their grandmother Sandy Herzberg's house. Grandma's goal was adjustable, which allowed big brother to dominate little brother even more than usual.

"He would dunk on me and then would make me cry and I would go inside," Joey Hall said. "But I honestly think that has something to do with how good I am because I learned to play against him."

The real fun came when it was too cold or dark to play outside, or after they broke the goal -- twice -- on their farm from dunking too hard. Inside the house, the brothers hung a Nerf goal on one of the doors upstairs. That also led to one of the few rules of the household when it came to playing inside.

"It just turned into dunking on each other and it sounded like the roof was going to cave in," Jacob said. "That was the one rule: There was no dunking. But c'mon, it was a Nerf goal, so of course, we kept dunking."

When big sister got involved the games turned into two-on-ones. They took turns being the "one" who got screened and schooled. She recognized early on that little Joey was a big gym rat when tagging along to her practices and travel ball games.

Kevin Hall, their father, coached all three during travel ball days, so he didn't mind the youngest wanting to play. Jessica, however, did get embarrassed and grew tired of her "annoying" little brothers begging to play, too.

"(Joey) would be the little kid in the corner dribbling," she said. "At halftime, he'd run out. At timeouts, he'd run out and shoot layups and everyone would clap.

"The youngest is always the best because they've seen more."

Especially when all the youngest has ever wanted to do was talk and play ball.

Sports on 01/26/2017

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