Little Rock McClellan wanted to speed things up during the second half Thursday night at the Lions Den, and the Lions did, oddly aided by two delay-of-game technical fouls, in a 69-66 victory over Pulaski Academy.
How much the technicals and resulting free throws helped McClellan turn a 29-24 halftime deficit into a 50-41 advantage after three quarters had coaches choosing their words carefully.
Both Pulaski Academy Coach Roger Franks and McClellan's Chris Threatt agreed that delay-of-game warnings are fairly standard procedure when a player touches a ball after a basket, but technicals were new territory for Franks.
Treatt, also, had never seen a delay-of-game technical until Tuesday night when the Lions (11-5, 4-1 4A-5) were called for it in a victory over Stuttgart.
"So I told our kids, 'Don't touch the ball,' " Threatt said. "I don't know if it was a point of emphasis for all referees, or just for that referee. But we got burned on that."
Thursday night, Pulaski Academy (6-6, 2-3) got introduced to delay-of-game.
The first came after Bruins leading scorer Alex Brogdon drove for a layup to counter a 6-0 Lions burst to start the second half and again during a 9-1 run by the Lions to close the third quarter with a nine-point lead.
Brogdon, a Delta State signee, led the Bruins with 22 points, but fouled out late in the fourth quarter.
"The delay-of-games are one of the great mysteries in life," Franks said. "I've been doing this 30 years. I might have had two warnings, but I've never had two technical fouls on that."
Franks said neither he nor Brogdon realized that he had four fouls, two coming on delay-of-game technicals.
The delay-of-game infractions didn't slow the Lions during a frenetic third quarter when they hit 10 of 13 shots from the field after making 8 of 29 in the first half.
"In the third quarter, we concentrated on making it a faster game," Threatt said.
Ian Robinson (15 points, 8 rebounds), Demetrius Torrance (17 points, 4 three-pointers) and Elijah Green (15 points, 5 rebounds) led the way for the Lions.
Girls
PULASKI ACADEMY 59, little rock MCCLELLAN 41
Maddie Hatcher scored 17 points to lead the Lady Bruins (8-6, 4-1) over the Lady Lions (5-7, 2-3).
Sports on 01/11/2019