Though senior players Brantley Cozart, Jordan Griffin, Callie Hogancamp, Quinton Motto, Travis Royal and Logan Trudell will[more] play for the final time in the Hornets Nest tonight and they, along with senior managers Kristen Dudley and Autumn Rouse, will be honored, both the Bryant High School varsity basketball teams have plenty of work still to do.
To their credit, however, they’re not sweating out making the post-season this year, they’re jockeying for seeding.
The Hornets, in third place among the 7A-Central ratings points that determine seeding, still have an outside chance to gain one of the league’s two first-round byes at State. Their target, the team they need to catch and pass, will be their opponent tonight, the North Little Rock Charging Wildcats.
In the teams’ previous meeting at North Little Rock, the Wildcats barely escaped with a 53-48 victory. They come into tonight’s game off back-to-back losses. On Friday, they suffered a 62-50 setback at the hands of the Central Tigers. A week ago, their game with Little Rock Catholic went three overtimes before the Rockets prevailed 64-62.
Bryant, meanwhile, might be in danger of a letdown if not for the challenge presented by North Little Rock. The Hornets have won five of six since that loss to the Charging Wildcats including a thrilling 46-41 win at Cabot on Friday to punch their post-season ticket.
The Lady Hornets have their work cut out for them in much the same way they did Friday at Cabot. North Little Rock is tied for the conference lead with Cabot and only trails in the ratings points by one for the top seed from the Central at State.
The Lady Hornets are going to be either fourth or fifth. They’re battling West Memphis for the higher seed and lead by just four points with two games to go. Bryant plays at Little Rock Central to wrap up the regular season this Friday. Though the Lady Hornets defeated West Memphis in a season-opening game, the two teams don’t play in the same conference and it won’t have any bearing on the seeding. So, while Bryant is taking on North Little Rock and Central, West Memphis will be playing at Jacksonville tonight and at home against Little Rock Parkview on Friday. The Lady Blue Devils will be underdogs in both of their games but only slightly against Jacksonville. The key game will be Bryant’s trip to Central on Friday.
Against North Little Rock, the Lady Hornets will take a shot at upsetting the statewide power. There is some reason to think they could make a game of it this time around. The Lady Charging Wildcats have had some struggles on the road this year. At Central, they only won by 11 — it says something about their prowess that an 11-point win would be considered a struggle — and they won at Mount St. Mary and at Van Buren by just 10, lost to Cabot on the road and won at Russellville by only 3.
Here are the standings and the ratings points:
7A/6A-CENTRAL CONFERENCE
2011-12 standings
Boys
Conf. Overall
Russellville 11-1 20-5
No. Little Rock 8-4 17-7
BRYANT 7-5 15-9
Conway 6-6 16-9
LR Catholic 5-7 6-11
Cabot 4-8 13-8
LR Central 4-8 9-14
Van Buren 3-9 10-15
Friday, Feb. 17
Bryant 46, Cabot 41
Conway 59, Van Buren 50
Russellville 48, LR Catholic 45
LR Central 62, North Little Rock 50
Tuesday, Feb. 21
North Little Rock at Bryant
Cabot at Van Buren
Conway at Russellville
LR Central at LR Catholic
Friday, Feb. 24
Bryant at LR Central
Russellville at Cabot
LR Catholic at Conway
Van Buren at North Little Rock
7A-CENTRAL RATINGS POINTS
Boys
Little Rock Hall 168
North Little Rock 122
Bryant 98
Conway 80
Little Rock Catholic 73
West Memphis 66
Little Rock Central 60
Cabot 57
7A/6A-CENTRAL CONFERENCE
2011-12 standings
Girls
Conf. Overall
No. Little Rock 11-1 23-3
Cabot 11-1 22-5
Russellville 9-3 18-7
Van Buren 7-5 19-7
BRYANT 6-6 14-12
Conway 3-9 11-13
LR Central 1-11 7-17
Mount St. Mary 0-12 6-18
Friday, Feb. 17
Cabot 68, Bryant 34
Van Buren 57, Conway 51
Russellville 58, Mount St. Mary 38
North Little Rock 64, LR Central 37
Tuesday, Feb. 21
North Little Rock at Bryant
Cabot at Van Buren
Conway at Russellville
LR Central at Mount St. Mary
Friday, Feb. 24
Bryant at LR Central
Russellville at Cabot
Mount St. Mary at Conway
Van Buren at North Little Rock
7A-CENTRAL RATINGS POINTS
Girls
Cabot 156
North Little Rock 155
Little Rock Hall 128
Bryant 76
West Memphis 72
Conway 34
Little Rock Central 11
Mount St. Mary 0
