Wonder-Marion III set

Wonder-Marion III set

Golden Lions avenge 30- point loss

Sports Editor They say that revenge is a dish best served cold.

For confirmation, you may ask the Wonder Golden Lions.

Wonder avenged its worst loss of the season, a 30point loss in Jonesboro, by topping Jonesboro MacArthur 33-32 yesterday afternoon in a 7A/6AEast junior high district tournament at Lehr Arena.

That sets up a third meeting with Marion on Friday night at 6:15 p.m. The schools split the first two meetings, with Wonder handing Marion its only loss of the season in late January.

Wonder took the lead for the final time against MacArthur with 13.2 seconds left when Kenneth Phillips came up with an airballed jump shot and scored on a stickback, while also drawing a foul.

The foul shot found its way home and the Golden Lions led by a point.

The Phillips sequence was the third lead change of the fourth quarter, a frame that also boasted two ties.

When the Golden Lions got a stop on the other end, Wonder, the No. 3 seed, had advanced to the final.

“At first, I thought about calling a timeout (if Phillips had made the free throw) to try and get ourselves composed,” explained Wonder head coach Kwame Brown.

“But I decided not to worry about it.”

For most of the fourth quarter, it didn’t look like Wonder would be able to slip MacArthur. The Golden Lions fell behind 28-25 with less than three minutes left in the game, and when MacArthur started to hold the ball at the top of the key, Wonder was forced to foul.

However, B. Snider missed the front-end of a one-and-one with 2:18 left in regulation and Wonder’s Immanuel Hoard canned a three-pointer with 2:02 left to tie the game at 28-28.

Lavar Washington would give MacArthur the lead again when he came up with an offensive rebound and drew a foul, making both free throws with 1:54 left.

However, Phillips would make a pair of fouls to tie the game at 1:15, before Wonder yielded a lay-up to Kevin Pointer with 32.4 remaining that left the Golden Lions behind 32- 30.

Despite the late deficit, Brown was not concerned.

“We just wanted to play well. We wanted to stay composed. I told our coaches that we needed to just get to the two-minute mark,” said the first-year Wonder boys coach. “Let’s be even, or down just two or three. If we do that, then we’ll be okay.”

Brown’s confidence was rewarded when Wonder misfired on a long twopoint basket, but Phillips and his leaping ability was able to highpoint the ball and score in the lane while drawing the contact.

Phillips converted the free throw following a MacArthur timeout.

The game was tight all the way through as the biggest lead that either team would take was a seven-point advantage by MacArthur midway through the second quarter. Despite that, Wonder had tied the game at 16-16 at the break.

MacArthur got 15 from Washington, eight from Snider and four apiece from Boykins and Moore.

Wonder was led by Phillps and his nine points, eight from Hoard and seven from Jamal Macklin.

NOTE: Find the Marion-Jonesboro Annie Camp game recap on Page No.

By Chuck Livingston