EL DORADO -- Both of Hot Springs' senior basketball teams reversed their fortunes from tournaments last week to upend El Dorado on the Wildcats' home floor Tuesday night.
The Hot Springs girls' and boys' teams combined to go 1-5 at tournaments in Conway and Fayetteville, respectively, last Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Their opponents included Class 7A teams from Conway and Springdale, Class 6A schools Harrison and Jacksonville and Class 5A Parkview.
Senior Imani Honey led the Lady Trojans with 22 points as they clipped El Dorado 56-54 in overtime. Hot Springs shot 20-for-21 on free throws in the second half and overtime to finish 21-for-27 from the game.
Coach Josh Smith noted the improvement from the team's previous game in Conway. Hot Springs shot 18-for-35, 51 percent, from the free throw line on Saturday in a 64-58 loss to Parkview. The team opened the Conway tournament with a 67-50 win over Jacksonville a week ago, but fell 67-41 to the hosts on Friday.
El Dorado led 9-8 after the first quarter and 28-16 by halftime. The Lady Trojans stormed back into the game with an 18-point third quarter to trail just 37-34 entering the fourth quarter. They outscored their opponents 5-3 in overtime to take the win.
Senior Ariana Guinn scored 17 points in the win. Junior Nya Moody scored 11.
Hot Springs faced Class 6A Benton Wednesday on the opening day of Benton's Holiday Classic tournament. The Lady Trojans will face Class 6A Sheridan today at 4 p.m. in another tournament game.
Boys
Free throws proved crucial for the Hot Springs senior boys on Tuesday as well. The Trojans shot 16-for-22 at the free throw line en route to a 57-46 road win over the Wildcats.
"El Dorado always has the talent and the skill set of basketball players," said Hot Springs head coach Rodney Echols on Tuesday. "That's why they are good year in and year out."
Two graduated leaders from last year's Class 6A runner-up team from El Dorado are now surging in the college ranks. Center Daniel Gafford earned his first start for the Arkansas Razorbacks on Saturday at home against No. 14 Minnesota. Guard Czar Perry started off his true freshman season fast with Northwestern State, a member of the Southland Conference, in Louisiana. Echols said the Wildcats remain an athletic team even without the two stars.
"Hopefully, we can slow them down, limit their transition points and keep the scoring to a minimum," Echols said.
Sophomore Santiair Thomas and freshman J.J. Walker tied for the team lead in scoring with 13 points apiece. Thomas also had 12 rebounds. Senior Curtis Frierson also had 10 points, junior Eddie Miles had nine and Kaleb Hughley scored eight.
The Trojans were matched up with 5A-South conference foe Watson Chapel on Wednesday in the Holiday Classic. They are scheduled to play again today in Benton at 5:30 p.m. against the host team.
Hot Springs dropped all three games they played last week in the Bulldog Classic at Fayetteville High School. The Trojans were outscored a combined 87-49 in the second halves of the three games.
"Scheduling and these guys playing the competition they are playing, it is going to help us down the road when January and February get here," Echols said.
They opened the Fayetteville tournament a week ago with a 65-43 loss to Conway after Hot Springs led 25-24 at halftime. Thomas accounted for 21 of the team's 43 points.
Hot Springs trailed Springdale 28-25 on Friday, but could not close the gap and fell 55-46. Walker led the team in scoring with 15 points and Thomas had 11.
"The thing that I took away from this is my kids learned a lot over those three days of playing tough competition," Echols said. "We played back-to-back 7A schools on Thursday and Friday. Then, we played a tough Harrison ball club that will have a chance to make a run in the (Class 6A) state tournament this year.
"We are playing teams with better talent and more size. As small as we are and as young as we are, games like this and the competition cannot do anything but make us better. That's the main focus, us getting better, and it does not get any easier this week."
Sports on 12/14/2017