SILOAM SPRINGS -- Siloam Springs fed off the energy of a large home crowd Friday night and responded with a 5A-West Conference victory.
Sophomore Josh Stewart scored a career-high 22 points, and Evan Sauer added 20 as the Panthers handed Little Rock Christian its first league loss 79-68 inside the Panther Activity Center.
"It was definitely the loudest this gym's been in a long time," said Sauer, who scored 11 of his points in the fourth quarter. "It definitely juiced up everybody on the team. We definitely prepared for this and were ready for the moment. No matter what, we worked as hard as we could and we were ready for the moment."
Sauer scored midway through the first quarter to give Siloam Springs a 12-11 lead, and the Panthers led the rest of the way.
Stewart knocked down 3 three-pointers and scored 15 of his points in the first half as Siloam Springs took a 37-26 lead at halftime.
Siloam Springs (12-4, 3-2) led by as many as 19 points in the fourth quarter.
"Our crowd was amazing tonight," Siloam Springs Coach Tim Stewart said. "The Pit was fired up, the crowd was awesome and Little Rock Christian has a great group, and it really makes it hard on you. That makes me all the more proud of how our guys responded."
Little Rock Christian (9-6, 4-1) got within 73-66 late in the fourth quarter, but the Panthers pulled away.
"They just outplayed us. He really had them prepared," Little Rock Christian Coach Clarence Finley said. "I thought during the week we had them prepared for the [3-2] zone. We didn't shoot it well. We didn't screen it well. We didn't execute. I thought they beat us to all 50-50 balls. I thought we had better athletes, but they had better effort. "
Landon Ward added 14 points for Siloam Springs, while Drew Vachon had 11 and Jackson Ford 8 off the bench.
Layden Blocker led Little Rock Christian with 23 points. Creed Williamson and Akeem Gilmore each had 11, and Collin Cooper had 10.
GIRLS
LR Christian 55, Siloam Springs 37
The defending Class 5A champion Lady Warriors remained unbeaten in 5A-West Conference play with their eighth consecutive victory.
Little Rock Christian (15-2, 5-0) scored the opening basket and led the whole way against the Lady Panthers (6-11, 0-5).
The Lady Warriors led 13-8 after the first quarter and 28-15 at halftime. Little Rock Christian led by as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter.
Wynter Rogers led the Lady Warriors with 16 points, and Yasmin Ott had 10.
Jael Harried led Siloam Springs with 14 points. Sydney Moorman chipped in 10.
Sports on 01/25/2020