FAYETTEVILLE — CJ Williams was honored before Friday’s game for surpassing 1,000 career points, then he went out and added some more.
Williams scored 21 points as Fayetteville ended the regular season with a 74-41 victory over Springdale Har-Ber at Bulldog Arena. Fayetteville (20-5, 11-3) secured the No. 2 seed over Har-Ber (12-7, 9-5) for the 6A-West Conference tournament, where games will be played starting Tuesday on the courts of the higher seeds.
Landon Glasper contributed 19 points for Fayetteville. But the night belonged to Williams, who received a hug from Fayetteville Coach Brad Stamps when he left the court with the other starters with 2:54 left to play.
“CJ was special, and he had a couple of good practices last week leading into it,” Stamps said. “But it was a total team effort. They competed their butts off, and I was really proud of our guys. We played good defense and it felt like every time we scored, it was off a pass.” Points were hard to come by in the first half, especially with Glasper on the bench for several minutes with two fouls. Glasper started the third quarter and teamed with Williams for 13 points to stretch a 29-22 halftime lead to 42-24 with 3:11 left in the quarter. Har-Ber called two timeouts during the flurry, but the Wildcats could not recover.
Miles Rolfe finished with 11 points to lead Har-Ber.
Williams scored 12 points in the first half, including a foul-line jumper before the halftime buzzer to give the Bulldogs a 29-22 lead. He and Glasper then took turns making shots in the second half as Fayetteville continued to pull away.
GIRLS
FAYETTEVILLE 59, SPRINGDALE HAR-BER 55
Caroline Lyles scored 17 points to lead a balanced attack for Fayetteville, which earned a share of the 6A-West Conference championship.
Fayetteville is the No. 2 seed behind Bentonville, which clinched the No. 1 seed with its win over Bentonville West on Friday.
Har-Ber cut the Fayetteville lead to 55-52 after a three-point basket by Maddux Mc-Crackin. Lyles and Claudia Bridges each made two free throws in the final 22 seconds to secure the victory for Fayetteville. Bridges finished with 16 and Wynter Beck 14 for Fayetteville, which led 28-23 at halftime and 38-35 after three quarters. Pacious McDaniel finished with 20 points for Har-Ber after scoring 32 in Tuesday’s win over Rogers. Caylan Koons added 19.
Koons led a comeback for Har-Ber, which went ahead 39-38 in the fourth quarter after falling behind 11-3 to start the game. Fayetteville regained the momentum after a basket by Beck and three free throws from Lyles.