THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Bentonville High School Athletics

SPRINGDALE -- Bentonville High's star trio combined for most of the team's points in the Tigers' 56-45 win over Springdale High, but it was Sawyer Price who knocked down the biggest shot of the night, according to his coach. "It really got us some separation," Bentonville coach Dick Rippee said. Price's only basket of the night -- a 3-pointer -- jump-started a big third quarter for Bentonville that seemed to seal the win for the streaking Tigers (15-4, 5-1 6A-West). Even though they led from almost the start of the game, the Tigers ran away with the game in the third quarter, extending their lead to 20 at one point. Connor Deffebaugh led all scorers with 21 points in what Rippee thought was the most complete game of the season from his senior guard. Michael Shanks and Colton Simmons added 15 each, and the trio proved why Bentonville is so difficult to beat this season. "We hurt them in different ways," Rippee said. "We hurt them inside, hurt them outside and just did a lot of good things to make our team difficult to defend." All seven of Shanks' baskets came around the rim, Simmons hit three shots from behind the arc and Deffebaugh scored from almost every spot on the court as Bentonville used its size advantage to extend its lead early. "We had a lot of focus of trying to run them of the three-point line and get them inside the three-point line and take contested shots, but they definitely had their way posting up at crucial moments," Springdale coach Jeremy Price said. Springdale (9-8, 3-3) stayed with Bentonville for the first quarter, swapping baskets with the Tigers, but the team struggled to get its shots to fall for almost the rest of the game. Bentonville survived a late push by the Bulldogs in the fourth after Springdale's press gave the Tigers some fits early on in the quarter but had built up enough of a lead that there wasn't much time left for Springdale to close the gap enough. John Paul Hignite connected on the rare four-point play to cut Bentonville's lead to 10 points, and a few minutes later, Jajuan Boyd got it to single digits after hitting a lay-up. Vinny Mason led all Springdale scorers with 14 points and was one of the Bulldogs' most reliable options on offense, getting to the rim for most of his baskets. "We played good basketball in spurts, but against really good teams like Bentonville you got to play four quarters of good basketball," Price said. "We had a stretch in the second quarter and the beginning of the second half where we couldn't get any stops."

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Bentonville High School Athletics

STRONG THIRD QUARTER SEALS THE DEAL FOR TIGERS

ALEX NICOLL

Arkansas Online | 1/23/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: JT Wampler