Farmington’s girls basketball team has been busy this season, and that’s a good thing according to Lady Cardinals Coach Brad Johnson.
He’s not expecting that to change any time soon, either.
“Two weekends ago, we were in Hot Springs and played in a tournament down there,” he said. “This past weekend, we were in Joplin, Mo., so we got a chance to see some out-of-state schools, and that’s always kind of good. We were kind of just chasing teams around that have a little bit of history to kind of test ourselves.”
Apparently, the Lady Cardinals have been the ones issuing tests.
Farmington (10-0) has won every game by at least 15 points and defeated its opposition at both the Hot Springs Invitational and the Lady Eagle Classic in Joplin, Mo., by an average of 25 and 41 points, respectively.
“Man, I think we played really well and are actually ahead of the curve defensively,” Johnson said. “It’s been an interesting mix. We have three starters back and some kids that played in the rotation. Along with that, we added Jenna [Lawrence] and some younger kids. But just how quickly they’ve adapted to everything, how fast they’ve picked things up. … It’s been fun to watch.”
Lawrence, who transferred from Melbourne over the summer, has added an imposing presence inside for a Lady Cardinals team that lost all-state forward Tori Kersey to graduation. The 6-2 junior hasn’t missed a beat since she joined the team and is coming off an all-tournament run, along with Carson Dillard and Reese Shirley, a week ago in Joplin.
Johnson said he thinks his team can get better on both ends, particularly with their execution in the half-court. Besides, things aren’t going to get any easier.
“We open up conference play [today] at Berryville, and that’s always a tough place to play,” Johnson said. “And then we go out to OKC to play in an event. We’re actually going to play Fort Smith Southside in Oklahoma City at the Paycom Center on Dec. 22. We’re going to play around noon, but we’re going to stay and watch the Thunder and the [Denver] Nuggets play. It’ll be neat playing in that arena.”
The Lady Cardinals will also play a tough Winnsboro, Texas, team at home on Dec. 27 before taking part in the Clay Maxey Mountain Home Invitational from Dec. 28-30. After that, they’ll get into the meat of their 4A-1 Conference schedule.
CONWAY BOYS
Plugging along
The season couldn’t have started any better for Conway than it has.
After finishing 8-13 last season, the Wampus Cats have won six of their first seven games and pocketed a pair of tournament titles despite being undersized and stacked with football players that joined just two weeks ago.
Yet, the formula for Conway’s success is easy.
“We’re just competing, to tell you the truth, and playing really hard,” Conway Coach Brian “Salty” Longing said. “We’re not playing clean basketball at all, and that’s really the next step that we’ve got to take. We’re turning the ball over too much and having some breakdowns, but we’re really defending well.
“This is the smallest team I’ve ever coached. We’re just little dogs that just scrap and fight, and it’s been enough to get us off to a good start.”
Smallish or not, Conway’s bite has been noteworthy. A two-point loss to surging West Memphis is the only blemish on the Wampus Cats’ otherwise sparkling mark. They’ve also beaten Marion, Blytheville and Rogers Heritage.
Longing noted that that the team’s rotation and chemistry is still a work in progress, a hitch that was expected so much inexperience on the team. For the most part, he said he knew what he had coming back and realized early that there was a certain way they’d have to play in order to beat teams.
The catch, though, is that there isn’t any mystery to it.
“This is who we have to be,” Longing said. “We’re not going to out-talent anybody, we’re not going to out-athlete anybody. We have to be the hard-playing, toughest team on the floor every night or we’re not going to win.
“And that’s what we’re getting right now. The guys have bought in to that. But when we get into 6A-Central play, we’ve got to play cleaner basketball.”
Conway will get its first chance to polish its play today when they host Russellville at 6:30 p.m. in the John Stanton Classic at Buzz Bolding Arena.
MELBOURNE GIRLS
Still standing
Rumors of Melbourne’s demise this season have been greatly exaggerated.
The reigning three-time Class 2A state champions lost a ton of players from last season and were faced with yet another daunting slate of games against teams from nearly every classification. But the more things have changed, the more they’ve apparently stayed the same for the Lady Bearkatz.
Melbourne (9-0) is perfect so far and recently ran its winning streak to 40 games, dating to last season, when it blew past White County Central 61-21 on Tuesday.
“We’re playing pretty solid right now,” Melbourne Coach Eric Teague said. “We’ve got a bunch of kids that are hungry and playing really hard. We lost five of our top six players, and there’s a lot of inexperience on our team. Those are things that we’ve talked about actually.
“But then you look back, and those kids that are inexperienced played against the No. 1 in the state of Arkansas all last year during practice. They were getting that experience without people realizing it.”
What teams are starting to see is that Melbourne will be just as formidable as it’s been for the past three seasons. Led by Tennessee-Martin commit Kenley McCarn, the Lady Bearkatz have already beaten defending Class 5A defending champion Jonesboro, Nettleton and Central Arkansas Christian. Melbourne also knocked off Class 2A preseason No. 1 and fellow 2A-2 Conference rival Salem during last week’s Cougar Classic at Izard County. Those two teams could meet again during the upcoming Northeast Arkansas Tournament before they play at least twice in league play.
But McCarn has been the driving force for the Lady Bearkatz. The 5-11 forward, who was the MVP of the 2021 state tournament and can play all five positions on the floor, scored 44 points in the victory over Nettleton and averaged nearly 28 points and nine rebounds per game during November.
“She’s been huge,” Teague said of McCarn. “She takes the pressure off those other kids. They know that when it comes to crunch time, we can depend on her.
“People are guarding her hard every night. She’s facing double teams, box-and-ones, and she would have a chance to get frustrated if she wanted to. But her teammates are working for her, and she’s working for them.”
Unfortunately for future opponents, that team camaraderie makes for a long night.
“A lot of people did doubt them this year,” Teague said. “We kind of let everybody see all the bulletin board material, and that got the kids pretty fired up. They’re just ready for their chance, their turn. Yes, we are young, probably going to have a few setbacks this year.
“But as well as we’ve done, and with the ceiling a little higher than what it’s going to be, I think they’re just going to get better.”
CONWAY GIRLS/ NORTH LITTLE ROCK BOYS
Moving on up
The North Little Rock boys and Conway girls continue to trickle up the national rankings.
Conway (10-0) came in a No. 12 in this week’s ESPN high school girls basketball top 25 rankings. The Lady Wampus Cats have won all of their games by 15 points or more following Tuesday’s 67-41 victory over West Memphis and are gearing up for the Sandra Meadows Classic in Duncanville, Texas, where they’ll be joined by fellow Arkansas teams Marion, Fayetteville and Jonesboro.
On the boys side, North Little Rock (6-1), which is getting set to play in the prestigious City of Palms Classic in Fort Myers, Fla., is ranked No. 11 after rebounding from a loss to Jonesboro by beating then-No. 3 Richardson, Texas, 82-68 last week. The Charging Wildcats will play Dr. Phillips, last year’s Class 7A champion in Florida, on Saturday, in the first round. A victory there could set North Little Rock up against No. 2 IMG Academy, Fla., in the quarterfinals.
TIP-INS
Wonderview guard Caleb Squires, who’s averaged 34 points in his past two games, recently received an offer from Hendrix College. The senior also had a 42-point game against Nemo Vista earlier in the season for the Daredevils (18-0). … Mammoth Spring (9-10) stopped a three-game winning losing Wednesday with a 55-49 victory at Hillcrest. Andrew Jones scored 15 points and both Gavin Boddie and Brayden Cray had 13 points for the Bears.
