The Arkadelphia High School basketball teams swept both games against Gurdon on Tuesday night at Gurdon. The Lady Badgers got their first win of the season 44-23. The Badgers had a 72-54 win for their first game of the season.

The Lady Badgers were coming off a 65-47 loss to Nashville in the first round of the Lady Tiger Tip-off at Ouachita Baptist University. The Lady Badgers dominated Gurdon staying in the lead throughout the game. Arkadelphia had an 11-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Arkadelphia more than doubled its score in the second quarter and took a 30-11 lead going into half-time. Arkadelphia outscored Gurdon 9-2 in the third for a score of 39-13.

Jasmine Dickerson was the leading scorer for the Lady Badgers with 11 points. She also had five steals. Brittlee Williams had six points, three assists and four steals. Ronnicka Jones had five rebounds. Gayla Johnson and Leanndra Thomas each had three steals.

“We played everybody and had 12 people to score,” Coach Lynn Rook said. Scoring was pretty even across the board for the Lady Badgers.

“The biggest key to the game was that Gurdon had turnovers. We had 21 steals,” he said. “If we could have made some shots on the inside it would have been a higher scoring game.

“We have still got to get comfortable playing. We rushed some shots,” Rook said. He said that girls have still got to learn how to deal with their nerves.

Arkadelphia will face Glen Rose in the second round of the Lady Tiger Tip-off at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday at Bill Vining Arena. “This was something to build on,” he said. “Glen Rose is a totally different team. They are fundamentally sound and well coached. They offer us a different type of challenge. Hopefully we will get off to a better start than we did Monday.”

The Badgers had their first game and first victory. The Badgers had a 14-10 lead at the end of the first quarter. Arkadelphia kept the lead scoring 18 points in the second quarter. The Gurdon Go-Devils trailed 32-21 at the end of the first half of play.

The Badgers outscored the Go-Devils 21-15 in the third for a score of 53-36. The final score was 72-54.

Schuyler Marks had 14 points. Marshawn Arnold had 12 points and eight rebounds. Marcco Malone had nine points for the Badgers. T.J. Means scored seven points. Sharrod Robinson had seven points, two steals and three assists. Trae Bledsoe had five rebounds.

Jarvis Purifoy had two steals and seven assists. Greg Clayborne had two steals, and Bradley Mitchell had three assists.

“I was real pleased for the first game,” Coach Donald Williams said. “Some of these guys only had a couple of practices. I was pleased with Jarvis, he handled the ball real well. He ran the offense well. Those seven assists speak for themselves. We were able to control the tempo of the game. Bradley Mitchell did a good job for the first game.”

Williams said that a big key to the game was that the Badgers kept their turnovers to a minimum.“That’s pretty good. We had nine turnovers and 11 steals so they canceled each other out,” he said.

“Schuyler Marks shot the ball real well. Marshawn Arnold came off the football field and played well for us,” Williams said. “The scoring was pretty balanced. Not just one individual took over the game.

Williams saw many positive things for them to build on this season. “We’ve got to keep working to get better. I saw some good things. We played good defense. We played well as a team. We need to continue to work and get better and get the team chemistry down.”

The Badgers will face Gurdon again next Tuesday for their next game at home. The Lady Badgers will tip-off at 6 p.m.