CONWAY -- East guard Travonta Doolittle freely acknowledged that he usually plays with a chip on his shoulder, but the All-State standout from Earle confessed he was extra motivated to play in Saturday's Arkansas High School Coaches Association Boys All-Star basketball game.
After hearing some of the pregame chatter from his West counterparts, Doolittle went out and scored 24 points, grabbed 5 rebounds and blocked 2 shots to help the East roll to a 124-87 victory in front of a spirited crowd at the Farris Center.
"My mindset was to kill from the start," Doolittle said. "I wanted to prove a point, simple as that. Before the game, everyone was like [the West] had all the height and that we didn't have any shooters. So I just took that to heart, went out and attacked them every chance I got."
The East led just 55-50 at halftime but got their points across by using a dominant second half to turn a close game into a rout. Doolittle, who earned Most Valuable Player honors, scored 13 points after the break as the East outscored the West 69-37 over the final two quarters. He also added two steals and two assists.
Dante Adams of Osceola added 19 points and 9 rebounds for the East, who shot 52 percent (50 of 96) from the floor and owned a decisive 63-40 edge on the boards. Payton Guiot of Greene County Tech added 18 points, including 6 three-pointers, while Marked Tree's Markel Perry finished with 12 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists.
"When you have this many talented players, it made my job easy," East Coach Mark Whitmire of Jonesboro Westside said. "The main thing we wanted was for them to have fun but play hard. You could tell they were feeding off each other, and the energy each group brought when they got into the game was contagious.
"From start to finish, they were into it, and it showed."
Alex Burleson of Jessieville had 21 points and 6 rebounds for the West, who were 32-of-80 shooting (40 percent). Harrison's Skylar Young had 11 points while Springdale Har-Ber's Tyler Garrett finished with nine.
The game was played under a five-quarter format, which didn't seem to bother either team. The East held a slim 17-15 lead after one but got a quick lift from Perry at the start of the second to open up a double-digit cushion. Perry scored seven points during his team's 10-0 run, including back-to-back eight-foot floaters, to put East ahead 27-15. Whitmire's team continued to lead throughout the third quarter and led 44-28 with 6:22 left before halftime, but the West slowly began chipping away at their deficit. Seth Stanley hit back-to-back 22-footers as the West closed the half on a 22-11 spurt, punctuated by Burleson's four-point play with 1.7 seconds showing, to climb within 55-50.
The West still trailed 67-59 midway through the fourth, but a steal and lay-up from Doolittle kickstarted a 19-6 flurry by the East, which never led by less than 15 points from that point on.
WEST (87)
Donald Jones 2 3-6 7, Carson Smith 1 2-2 4, Tyler Garrett 1 6-6 9, Jacob Loggins 1 1-2 3, Skylar Young 5 0-0 11, Graham Chenault 2 0-1 4, Garrett Eck 4 0-0 9, Alex Burleson 8 3-3 21, Jordan Sheppard 1 0-1 2, Jai Peters 2 0-1 4, Zane Kirkham 0 0-2 0, Landon Reed 1 0-0 2, Seth Stanley 3 0-0 8, Garrett Matlock 0 1-2 1, Carl Fitch 1 0-0 2. Totals 32 16-26 87.
EAST (124)
Ike Moore 3 0-0 6, Brandon Partee 3 3-4 10, Dante Adams 8 0-0 19, Travonta Doolittle 10 3-3 24, Reed Graddy 1 0-0 2, Payton Guiot 6 0-0 18, Markel Perry 5 1-2 12, Kentrell Jacobs 3 0-0 8, Joel Burrow 4 0-0 10, Zachary Byrd 5 0-0 10, Sagen Godwin 0 0-0 0, Colby Malone 0 0-0 0, Kanyin Martin 2 0-0 5. Totals 50 7-9 124.
West;15 10 25 19 18 -- 87
East;17 24 14 31 38 -- 124
Three-point goals -- West 7 (Burleson 2, Stanley 2, Young 1, Garrett 1, Eck 1), East 17 (Guiot 6, Adams 3, Jacobs 2, Burrow 2, Partee 1, Doolittle 1, Perry 1, Martin 1). Totals fouls -- West 8, East 25.
Sports on 06/24/2018