Too little, too late

Too little, too late

WMCS loses thriller to Marshall Academy

Editor

Photo by Chuck Livingston

MARKS, Mississippi — It was too little, too late for West Memphis Christian here in Saturday night’s game against Marshall Academy.

Playing in the 1-AA district championship game for at least the third season in a row, the Black Knights fell behind by 10 points at halftime, and as many as 12 in the second half, only to get within two points late in the fourth quarter before falling just short by a 57-52 margin at the Delta Academy Gym.

It was West Memphis Christian’s third meeting with Marshall this season and the Patriots now lead that series 2-1 after winning the last two games.

The Black Knights won a 63-61 thriller on January 19 at home.

“They have a couple of guys that are older, more experienced guys for them, and they hit some big shots for them,” said West Memphis Christian firstyear head coach Rob Garlington of Marshall.

“They had some things go their way tonight, but we played hard and they did, too.”

In the first half, most of the big shots that Garlington may have been referring to were from three-point range. The

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Kevin Smith (20) draws a foul during West Memphis’ win against Marion last Friday night. Patriots connected on five of their first eight shots from distance and hit the halftime lockers making five of nine from bonus.

That allowed Marshall Academy to tote a 33-23 lead with them, while West Memphis Christian searched for answers.

The answer, apparently, was defense. The Black Knights threw a number of different fronts at Marshall in the second half, and West Memphis Christian forced 10 turnovers in that span of time alone.

Seven of those came in the fourth quarter alone with the Black Knights throwing their full-court press at Marshall.

“We’ve been a second-half team all year,” Garlington explained. “We’ve had about four or five really close games where we pulled it out at the end. We rely on our experience to get it done and I feel like we really have one of the best backcourts in the state of Arkansas in Martinez (Harper) and Tray (Doolittle), they’re sophomores, but they’ve played so much basketball that they don’t really get stressed.”

Harper and Doolittle had a big hand in turning Marshall over and starting the rally. The backcourt got a number of deflections and Dominic Rhoden scored 12 of his team-high 14 points in the final frame.

West Memphis Christian would get within two points at 54-52 on a lay-up from Harper and 37.9 seconds left in regulation.

Marshall’s Corteze Love would hit one out of two free throws to keep the Black Knights within three points, but Harper would miss a jumper from the foul line and when Kentrale Green reeled in an offensive rebound, he appeared to be pushed outof- bounds, but did not get the call and West Memphis Christian lost the turnover.

Love would make two more free throws to clinch the final.

West Memphis Christian’s season isn’t over. By topping Delta on Friday night and finishing second in their district, the Black Knights will advance to the North State bracket, which will be held this week, which will decide who qualifies for the Overall state tournament the following weekend.

The Black Knights have to win their first game on Tuesday night to qualify for the next round, and from there, the team will play for seeding.

West Memphis Christian’s last appearance in the Overall state tournament was in 2014 when the team finished 30-8 overall and lost in the opening round of the Overall.

West Memphis Christian (20-4 overall) was led by Rhoden’s 14 points, 11 from Harper, nine from Hunter Weathers and eight from Doolittle.

Marshall (16-7 overall) got a game-high 18 points from Malik Riddle, 14 from Luke Hobson and 12 from District 1-AA Most Valuable Player Corteze Love.

West Memphis Christian got Rhoden and Weathers on the Honorable Mention All-District team, while Green, Harper and Doolittle were all selected to the All-District team.

Doolittle, Green and Harper also garnered nominations to the All-Tournament team.

Photo by Chuck Livingston

The West Memphis Christian Black Knights pose with their District 1-AA runner-up trophy following their game against Marshall Academy on Saturday.

By Chuck Livingston