The 3-point shots were very good to Springdale Har-Ber's boys Friday night, especially when they flew out of Tylor Perry's hands.

The sophomore guard hit four beyond the arc in the second half and had five of the Wildcats' 10 beyond the arc as Har-Ber enjoyed a 61-42 victory over Bentonville High during 7A-West Conference action in Wildcat Arena.

"It's just lots and lots of practice," Perry said. "I actually shoot a lot with my teammate, Matthew Kaunitz. He's the one that has me out there shooting like that again."

Braeden Williams' bucket with 6 minutes, 13 seconds left in the first half completed an 11-0 run and gave Har-Ber (11-5, 3-0) the lead for good, but the Wildcats only had a 27-23 cushion at halftime. Perry, however, opened the second half with the hot hand and eventually scored 19 of his second 26 points over the next 16 minutes.

He hit back-to-back 3-pointers over a 31-second span -- the latter while falling into his team's bench -- and gave Har-Ber a 35-25 cushion with 6:23 remaining in the third quarter. Bentonville (5-9, 1-1) did cut the deficit back to eight on two occasions, the last being 39-31 on Arman Akbar's bucket, but Perry responded another 3-pointer and gave the Wildcats a 42-31 lead entering the fourth quarter.

"I thought our team played really well defensively," Har-Ber coach Scott Bowlin said. "We contested shots, and it's the first time since I've been here that Bentonville's offense wasn't comfortable. We rushed them.

"I don't know how many steals Tylor had, but it had to be six or seven. We also rebounded the ball really well."

Kaunitz had 14 points, including four 3-pointers, for Har-Ber, which took sole possession of first place in the league with the win and Bentonville West's loss to Springdale High. Jordan Hemphill had 10 points for Bentonville and Aaron Estrada added nine, including a 3-pointer that ignited the Tigers' 12-0 run in the first quarter and gave them their first and only lead.

"I feel like missing some shots that we make a lot of the time hurt us early," Bentonville coach Jason McMahan said. "Honestly, that's from a high want-to, like wanting to win this game so bad.

"I think our kids were over-pumped. We got some execution problems, and Perry got some good looks that he usually makes. That created a deficit, then panic set in on our boys at that point."
