Hutchinson, Tigers too much for Airedales

BENTONVILLE -- The hotter Asa Hutchinson IV became with his shooting Tuesday night, the farther Bentonville High's boys pulled away from Alma. The senior highlighted a 23-7 run when he scored 12 of his game-high 28 points in the third quarter and led the Tigers to a 61-43 nonconference victory over the Airedales in Tiger Arena. "I think Asa is a handful," Bentonville coach Dick Rippee said. "Here's the thing -- you put a perimeter guy on him and he'll go post. You put a post on him, and he'll go and hit a 3. That's difficult to defend, then our guys did a real good job of finding him. "There were some things where he just played. It wasn't a set where we were trying to get it to him down low. We had some penetration where he cut from his guy when his guy turned his head. That's a sign of a guy that's really studying basketball and learning how to play." Bentonville (4-1) had a 25-20 halftime lead, and Alma had cut it to a 27-23 margin after Tanner Shelton's free throw with 6 minutes, 44 seconds left in the third quarter. The Tigers, however, blew the game open of the final 4 minutes of the third quarter, outscoring the Airedales 16-2 during that time. Hutchinson, whose dunk at the 5:49 mark helped Bentonville match its biggest lead at that point, scored seven straight points to push the Tigers' lead to a 39-25 margin. He then capped the third quarter with a long 3-pointer at the buzzer to make it a 48-27 Bentonville lead, and Alma didn't get any closer than 14 points over the final 8 minutes. "This is our third game of the season, and we're about two weeks behind everybody," Alma coach Stan Flenor said. "This game was definitely going to be a challenge for us, but I thought our game plan was pretty solid. We were going to stay in front of them and, offensively, I thought we executed real well early. "We started the third quarter with a score-score, but fatigue jumped on us a little bit. Of course, they started making shots, and that was the difference to the game -- that, along with a little fatigue -- but give them credit for hitting a lot of shots." Hutchinson was the only player in double figures for Bentonville, which travels Saturday to Springfield (Mo.) Glendale for a game against Jackson (Miss.) Provine. Kade Wood and Shelton each had 12 points to lead Alma (1-2), which returns to action next week against Vilonia.

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HUTCHINSON, TIGERS TOO MUCH FOR AIREDALES

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Arkansas Online | 12/6/2017

PHOTO CREDIT: Bentonville Athletics