BENTONVILLE -- Dick Rippee saw no need to panic Friday night, even though Bentonville's boys faced a nine-point deficit after the first quarter.
He believed the Tigers would make a comeback and they did, outscoring Fort Smith Southside 23-2 in the second quarter en route to a 68-47 victory over the Mavericks during 6A-West Conference action in Tiger Arena.
"I think if I start panicking, then maybe they do," Rippee said. "I was just trying to prove to them that I have confidence in them.
"We went three days without doing anything. We came in Sunday and practiced in the afternoon. We had three days off and were a little rusty, and I thought Southside played a really good first quarter. They made some shots, and I thought they were contested shots."
Southside (5-16, 1-8) did little wrong during the last 4 minutes of the first quarter, going on a 15-2 run and taking a 20-11 lead as Yazed Taforo drilled a three-pointer just before the buzzer sounded. Bentonville, however, opened the second quarter with eight straight points and pulled within 20-19 on an Owen Dehrmann three-pointer.
Alex Roper ended that Tiger spurt with a bucket, but it turned out to be the only bucket the Mavericks scored in the entire second quarter. Bentonville then seized the moment and ran off 15 unanswered points, seven by Jayden Lee, and claimed a 34-22 halftime cushion.
"It ended up being a good night for us after the first quarter," Rippee said. "You try to be patient and don't try to make a nine-point shot. There's no such thing.
"You just have to get a stop. You can't skip steps. You have to get a stop, then get a score, then get another stop and get another score. We kept getting stops in the second quarter, and that was the key."
Bentonville picked up where it left off and quickly extended its lead to a 43-24 margin with 5:08 left in the third quarter after a goaltending call gave Lee another bucket. Southside never did get closer than 14 points, and the Tigers enjoyed their biggest cushion when Jayvn Williams' three-pointer made it a 66-43 game with 2:41 remaining.
Xander Collins had 14 points and Ma'aiki Dauda added 12 for Bentonville, which travels to Springdale for a makeup game today. Levi Steele finished with 14 for Southside, followed by Yazed Taforo with 12.