FAYETTEVILLE — Fayetteville forward Colton Primm stood outside the team locker room Saturday night, his nose stuffed with cotton to stop the bleeding.
The senior was slowed down more by a bloody nose suffered in the first quarter of a 64-36 win over Harrison than the Goblins’ actual defense.
One day after guard Taylor Cochran drained seven 3-pointers and scored 25 points in a 64-33 rout of Sherman, Texas, Fayetteville’s role players showed they shouldn’t be overlooked, either.
It’s not always Cochran and point guard Kikko Haydar driving to the basket and getting easy baskets in the paint. Sometimes it’s backup guard Jack Jones and defensive specialist Jacob Baxter, who provided a boost against Harrison.
“This is pretty much a confidence-building game for us because we don’t really get to prove our scoring a lot of the times,” said Primm, who scored a game-high 15 points Saturday. “But games like this, (teams are) focused on Kikko and Taylor because that’s the only scouting report they get. So it’s our chance to take advantage of those types of things.”
While Cochran and Haydar combined to score 21 points, the Bulldogs (8-2) turned to Primm, Baxter and Jones during a 12-0 run that allowed them to distance themselves from the Goblins (4-4) toward the end of the third quarter.
After Harrison rallied to cut Fayetteville’s lead to 36-25 early in the third quarter, Primm scored on a pair of easy baskets in the paint. Baxter added two more inside shots, and Jones converted his second of two layups to extend the Bulldogs’ lead to 48-25 with 54 seconds left in the quarter.
“I think that teams are going to find out that the other guys on our team can score and you got to pay attention to them,” said Fayetteville coach Barry Gebhart, whose team will return to action Saturday in the Arby’s Classic in Bristol, Tenn.
Primm, Baxter and Jones combined to score 31 points, and the large lead allowed Gebhart to pull his starters and get 10 different players to score.
“That makes it very difficult because we know who they’re best scorers are, the three best scorers,” Harrison coach David Stahler. “But when the others start hitting, that makes them really tough and they did that to us last year.”