BENTONVILLE -- The magic number for 6A-West Conference perfection now stands at one for Bentonville's boys.
The Tigers put together a strong second-half performance to pull away for Springdale and celebrated their final regular-season home game with a 57-44 victory over the Bulldogs.
"I don't know what to think about that, except I wish it could give us the conference's No. 1 seed for the state tournament," said Bentonville coach Dick Rippee, whose team will try to complete an unblemished conference record Friday night at rival Bentonville West. "But it doesn't do that.
"I'm proud of our guys because 13 times we have answered the bell and came out and battled. We're taking everyone's best shot, which happens when you're in first place. Everybody just wants to knock you off."
Owen Dehrmann hit a 3-pointer with 4 seconds left to give Bentonville (19-1, 13-0) a 23-17 halftime cushion, but Springdale (8-13, 2-10) kept the Tigers close for much of the third quarter. Anthony Thomas drilled a 3-pointer to pull the Bulldogs within 28-26 with 3:38 left in the third quarter -- the closest they had been since a 14-14 tie in the second quarter.
But just it did in the first meeting in Springdale, Bentonville put together an offensive run and pulled away. The Tigers scored the next 11 points, with Caden Miller's bucket in the final minute giving the Tigers a 39-26 cushion going into the fourth quarter.
"You could tell both teams were a little rusty and didn't shoot the ball as well as they are capable," Rippee said. "We got a few more stops than they did.
"I thought we played pretty well in the first half by holding them to 17 points, but we missed some shots. We took great shots, but we missed some shots we ordinarily make. We finally hit some shots in the third quarter and got a little separation."
Hayden Shanks gave the Tigers their biggest lead when his 3-pointer made it a 49-33 game midway through the fourth quarter, and Springdale couldn't get any closer than 11 the rest of the way.
Shanks finished with 14 points and was the only player in double figures for Bentonville, which had 11 players contribute to the scoring. Thomas and Damnique Hertin each had 11 points for Springdale, while Marty Jelkin added 10.
Girls
Bentonville 82, Springdale 20
Bentonville scored the first 13 points and cruised to a win over Springdale in the Lady Tigers' final regular-season home game.
The Lady Tigers played the game with Maryam Dauda, who was selected for the McDonald's All-American Game earlier Tuesday. The 6-4 Dauda suffered a knee injury during a practice session.
Ella Campbell had 20 points to lead four players in double figures for Bentonville (15-3, 9-1), which led 43-16 at halftime and limited Springdale to just four points in the second half. Jada Brown added 14 while Gracie Eaves and Nadia Akbar each chipped in 13.
Nevaeh Griffin scored nine points to lead Springdale (2-21, 1-9).
Henry Apple can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWAHenry.