Baptist Prep tightened its grip on the 3A-5 Conference by putting the squeeze on Central Arkansas Christian in the second half Friday night.
The Eagles held CAC to 28.5% shooting after halftime and got an explosive performance from junior sharpshooter Hudson Likens to walk away with a 67-47 road victory at Mustang Mountain.
Likens scored 22 of his game-high 24 points in the first half to lead Baptist Prep (16-9, 10-2), which is gunning for a sixth consecutive league title. The Eagles remain a game up on Mayflower and hold a two-game lead over CAC and Episcopal Collegiate with two games remaining in the regular season.
Senior forwards Jeremy Elmquist and Brooks Spoon each added nine points for Baptist Prep.
"This was a big one for us," Baptist Prep Coach Steve Miller said. "Coach [Matt] Hall does such a great job with CAC, and we knew it'd be a tough one. But I thought we really got going there in the second half, that third quarter in particular, and it was because of our defense.
"We took it up a notch and came out after the half playing really, really hard on that end of the floor."
Baptist Prep outscored CAC 16-10 in that third quarter after leading 31-26 lead at halftime. The Mustangs had to work extra hard just to get decent shots in that period and occasionally had trouble getting the ball up the floor whenever they were trapped in the backcourt. The Eagles also scored six points within the first 1:02 of the quarter, which helped break the game open after a nip-and-tuck first half.
Junior guard Brock Hendrix finished with 17 points and senior forward Colton Marshall had 11 for CAC (15-7, 8-4), which held a 24-22 lead with 2:16 remaining in the second quarter before Likens scored nine of the last 11 points -- including a corner three-pointer at the buzzer -- to give Baptist Prep its five-point cushion. However, the teams were almost identical across the board through the first 16 minutes of play.
CAC shot 10 of 17 (58.8%) compared to 11 of 18 (61.1%) for Baptist Prep. Both teams had seven rebounds and seven turnovers in the first half, but once the third quarter started, the Eagles took off.
"In the first half, we were a little stagnant on offense and had trouble handling the basketball," Miller said. "Hudson hung us in there with his threes, especially with that one right before the half. Then we were fortunate enough to get some steals and turn them into to quick baskets right out of the gate in the third.
"That gave us a little cushion, but you're never comfortable against CAC because they've got so many good shooters."
Baptist Prep took a 47-36 lead into the fourth quarter and slowly expanded it throughout. The Eagles also hit all 10 of their free throws over the final four minutes to maintain their advantage.
GIRLS
BAPTIST PREP 52,
CENTRAL ARK. CHRISTIAN 50
Junior guard Katie Vaden buried a go-ahead three-pointer with 17 seconds left to power the Lady Eagles past their rivals.
Sophomore guards Hope Burnett and Josie Stewart scored 17 and 11 points, respectively, for Baptist Prep (16-9, 8-4), which led by as many as 15 points in the first half and 11 in the second half but needed a fourth-quarter rally to win. Vaden finished with 11 points as well.
Senior forward Brittney Williams had 13 points and 11 rebounds while sophomore guard Ava Knoedl scored all 11 of her points after halftime for CAC (21-5, 10-2), which played without leading scorer Bethany Dillard but battled back to grab a 50-49 lead late until Vaden's game-winner. Sophomore forward Stella Smith added 7 points, 10 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 blocks for the Lady Mustangs.
Sports on 02/08/2020