Zebras step on the gas, overcome Trojans 60-56

Without stepping onto a basketball court for the past eight days, Pine Bluff High School answered any questions about its energy level against Hot Springs High on Tuesday.

Pine Bluff led by 20 points with 4:42 left and survived a lastditch effort by the Trojans to win 60-56 Wednesday in McFadden Gymnasium. The Zebras (8-6, 2-0 in 5A-South) hadn’t practiced or played since a Jan. 11 victory at El Dorado due to closing campus amid a spike in coronavirus cases, and they built a big-enough lead to hold on against the scrappy Trojans (4-8, 0-2).

“We were executing, we came out with high energy considering we had been off eight days, and the energy kind of wore off and it caught us in the fourth quarter,” said sophomore guard Courtney Crutchfield, who scored 18 points in the win.

Hot Springs committed five fouls to force Pine Bluff into the bonus and scored 7 points in 31 seconds to narrow the deficit to 4, the final stretch not leaving Zebras Coach Billy Dixon all that happy despite the win.

“We stopped playing, and we relaxed,” he said. “We were out there having fun and not being focused. That’s the only disappointing thing for me. We’re up 19, 20 points in the fourth quarter. You’ve got to put that away. I expect for us to have some drag,

and I expect guys to not be consistent just because of the time we had off, but when you can have that kind of separation in the game, you’ve got to put that away.”

The Zebras will have to build more energy because Wednesday’s win was the first of three games in as many days. Today, they will visit a White Hall team (6-6, 1-0) that last played Jan. 7, and return to McFadden to host Sheridan on Friday.

The Hot Springs and White Hall games were postponed from earlier dates because of Pine Bluff’s closure.

Pine Bluff had its plate full trying to slow down 6-foot-8 Hot Springs center Jabari West on Wednesday. The George Washington University commit dunked five times — twice on putbacks — and led all scorers with 28 points.

“That should be the incentive for our guys to come back and play basketball,” Dixon said. “We didn’t box him out at all the first half. The second half, we let him get downhill and get to the rack and finish. We didn’t put a body on him all night long.”

Each team made 26 of 46 shots (56.5%) from the floor. Pine Bluff nailed just one 3-pointer by Troy’reon Ramos, who finished with 9 points. Jabbar Spellman had 11 points in the win.

Octavious Rhodes scored 10 points and Nasir Hannah added 9 for the Trojans, who played their second game in a row.

Pine Bluff led 31-19 at halftime.

“We came out ready,” Crutchfield said. “We stayed in a group chat, and we associated with each other for the little break we had. We came back together and put on a show.”

GIRLS

PINE BLUFF 48, HOT SPRINGS 35

Nadiya Moten nailed five 3-point baskets off the bench and led the Fillies with 16 points in their first conference win of the season.

Pine Bluff (2-6, 1-1 in 5A-South) gave up a 16-0 run in the second quarter to Hot Springs (4-8, 0-2) before Sa’vhanna Obasade scored 5 of the last 6 points of the quarter to pull the Fillies within 20-16 at halftime.

T’Ceana Jeffrey, who had 11 points, sparked Pine Bluff’s 13-0 run to start the second half with a jumper and lay-in off steals. Pine Bluff led 37-29 through three quarters.

Caitlyn Darrough added 9 points in the win. Praylin Jones led Hot Springs with 11 points, followed by Alix Frazier with 8.

Pine Bluff faces White Hall at 5 p.m. today at Bert Honey Gymnasium, with the boys game to follow.