The Bryant Hornets and Lady Hornets swept all three games against Arkadelphia on Thursday night at Arkadelphia High School. The eighth grade Lady Beavers fell 45-10. The freshman Lady Badgers lost 42-11, and the freshman boys dropped their game 41-26.

Bryant jumped out to a 16-point lead in the first minutes of the game. By the end of the first quarter, the Lady Hornets lead 29-3. The Lady Beavers were outscored 12-5 in the second and went into half-time down 41-8.

The Lady Beavers held Bryant to only four points in the second half. They lost the game, 45-10.

Coach Alexander said that Bryant is a very good team. “They are really good, very athletic, disciplined and skilled. You combine all that it makes for a good basketball team,” he said.

“We scored better than we did on Monday, and Bryant is a lot better than Camden. We were actually able to break their press some. We played better defense in the second half,” Alexander said.

In the freshman girls’ game, the Lady Hornets shut the Lady Badgers out in the first quarter not allowing any points. They had an 18-0 lead going into the second quarter.

Kaitlyn Reid had a three-pointer in the second for the first Lady Badger points. Then, Alicia Roberts added one with a free-throw. The Lady Badgers trailed 28-4 going into  the second half of play.
Reid added another three-point shot in the third. The Lady Hornets outscored the Lady Badgers, 12-3 in third for a score of 40-7.

The Lady Badgers held Bryant to only two points in the fourth. With 4:11 left in the game, Katie Hayes had a free-throw. Carneisha Wright also added one from from the free-throw line. At the buzzer, Katie Hayes scored two for a final score of 42-11.

Reid had six points for the Lady Badgers, and Hayes had three.

The freshman Badgers stayed with the Hornets until the end. The Hornets got on the board first. Then, Jakhiry Dixon added three points with a basket and one from the free-throw line. The Badgers trailed 9-3 at the end of the first.

Javaughn Williams scored back-to-back for the Badgers make it 12-7 with 2:32 left in the first half. Justin Williams made a free-throw to make it 16-8. The Badgers were behind 20-8 at the end of the first half.

The Badgers put up five points in the third quarter and only allowed eight. Garrett Rucker and Dixon scored all five of the points with three free-throws and a basket.

The Badgers’ 11 points in the fourth were not enough for a victory. Dixon was the leading scorer with 10 points. Javaughn Williams had eight points for the Badgers.

“We played better,” Coach Trent Smith said. “We have played two good teams. That will help us when we get into conference play. We play a pretty hard nonconference schedule. It will take a little while for the kids to get used to playing together, and for me to see who fits in the best to the scheme. We had too many turnovers again, and did not run the floor as well as we could have. But we competed with a 7A team. We were only down by six with three minutes left in the game.”

The freshman Badgers and Lady Badgers compete in the Bryant Invitational on Saturday. The girls will play Benton at 2:40 p.m. The boys tip-off at 3:50 p.m. also against Benton.