By Rob Patrick

VAN BUREN — Seniors Kenzee Calley, Hannah Goshien, Shanika Johnson, Haley Montgomery, Alana Morris and Brooke Parish put the Bryant Lady Hornets back on the statewide basketball map over the last two years.

For three seasons between 2004-05 — when Rhonda Hall and the Grappe triplets (Ashley, Amanda and Allison) led the team to State — and last season, the Lady Hornets were unable to reach the State tournament. While that’s not a long drought by some standards, for the the Lady Hornet's program, it was a rare thing indeed. Consider that the 2004-05 trip to State was the first time the program didn’t advance dating back to the 1970’s (as best as can be determined).

This season, the Lady Hornets won 24 games, the most since the 1998-99 team went 24-6. The last time a Lady Hornets team won more than 24 was in 1995-96 when the team posted a 26-8 mark.

This year’s win over Fort Smith Northside on Thursday was the first State tourney win for a Lady Hornets team since March 4, 2003, when that year’s team defeated Jonesboro 59-53. In their next game, the 2002-03 version of the Lady Hornets were knocked out of the tourney in a quarterfinal game against Northside. So Thursday’s win was long-awaited revenge.

It was a win also that got the Lady Hornets to the semifinals for the first time since that 1995-96 team lost in the State championship game.

This year, the team’s bid to match that, however, fell short on Saturday afternoon when the defending Class 7A State champion Fayetteville Lady Bulldogs ended their season with a 73-45 loss.

By Rob Patrick

VAN BUREN — The Bryant Lady Hornets are a win away from playing for a State championship.

Though, in a 32-minute game, they led for about two minutes, 1:21 of that came at the end when Kenzee Calley converted four free throws. The first two snapped a 54-54 tie. The last two sealed a 58-54 win over the Fort Smith Northside Lady Bears at Clair Bates Arena on Thursday night.

Now 24-4, the Lady Hornets are set to play defending Class 7A State champion Fayetteville in the semifiinals on Saturday at noon. The Lady Bulldogs, the regular-season champions of the 7A-West (their lone league loss was at Northside), advanced to the semifinals with a 62-34 win over Fort Smith Southside on Thursday.

Bryant’s winning surge was sparked initially by point guard Haley Montgomery, who had kept her team in the game most of the way. Her 3-pointer with 4:11 left gave her 24 points for the game including 5 of 6 from 3-point range. It cut into the Lady Bears’ 7-point lead.

And, as it turned out, Bryant held Northside scoreless for the final 4:25 of the game.

Game underway

End of first quarter

Fort Smith Northside 20, Bryant 15 

Halftime

Bryant 32, Northside 32 

End of third quarter

Northside 48, Bryant 45

Timeout 1:48 left

Bryant 54, Northside 54

Final

Bryant 58, Northside 54 

EDITOR'S NOTE: BryantDaily.com will provide updates at the end of each quarter of tonight's Bryant-Northside State Tournament game.

VAN BUREN — The Bryant Lady Hornets, second seed from the 7A-Central Conference, will open play in the Class 7A State Tournament tonight at 7 against the Fort Smith Northside Lady Bears at Clair Bates Arena.

Northside, the third seeded team from the 7A-West, dismissed Van Buren, the sixth seed from the Central, 65-44, in the first round of the tourney on Wednesday. The Lady Bears had three players score in double figures led by Taylor Green, a 5-9 junior forward, with 18 points. Chauntel Terry, 5-10 junior forward, added 17 points, and Mannasha Bell, another 5-9 junior, added 12 including 8 of 15 from the free throw line.

CLASS 7A STATE TOURNAMENT

At Van Buren High School

Girls

Wednesday, March 3

Game 1 — Cabot (14-13) (Central 4) vs. Fort Smith Southside (11-15) (West 5), 1 p.m.

Game 3 — Fort Smith Northside (20-8) (West 3) vs. Van Buren (11-17) Central 6), 4 p.m.

Game 5 — Springdale Har-Ber (14-14) (West 4) vs. Little Rock Central (12-14) (Central 5), 7 p.m.

By Rob Patrick

LITTLE ROCK — The Bryant Lady Hornets’ seniors just know how to win.

Though they trailed the Little Rock Central Lady Tigers for most of their 7A-Central Conference game at the sweat box also known as the Tiger Den, the Lady Hornets found a way to extract a 47-42 win. The fact that they held the Lady Tigers to just 2 points over the final six minutes of the game was integral.

“I felt like, through the whole course of the game, they never looked like they expected anything other than we were going to win,” Bryant head coach Blake Condley said of his players. “They were the same start to finish, no panic, no frustrations. We just kept doing what we’ve been doing.

“Central didn’t give us anything tonight,” he noted. “We had to work and earn it. Central played real hard. They were aggressive. I thought they did a lot of good things. We just had to fight through that in order to be able to win.”

As a result of the victory, the Lady Hornets will be the No. 2 seed from the league to the Class 7A State Tournament in Van Buren. They’ve earned a first-round bye and they won’t run into the unbeaten Central champs from North Little Rock until the finals, if they can get there.

Photos by RICK NATION

By Rob Patrick

When you’re playing a team that 26-0 on the season, just clinched their fourth straight 7A-Central Conference championship and is riding a 33 game conference winning streak, you’re team can’t afford to play anything but its best from start to finish.

And that would just give you a chance to win, nothing would be certain about the outcome even then.

You just can’t afford a letdown along the way.

Well, for most of three quarters, the Bryant Lady Hornets, who came in 22-3 overall in their own right and second only to North Little Rock in the 7A-Central Conference standings, stayed right with the top-ranked visitors to the Hornets’ Nest on Tuesday night.

In fact, when Bryant’s Alana Morris posted up for a bucket with 4:42 left in the third period, the Lady Hornets were within a point, 43-42. Even after baskets by North Little Rock’s Kayla Brown and Lexus Williams, Bryant’s Haley Montgomery connected on a pair of free throws that had her team within 47-44 with 1:57 left in the period.

But, it was at that point, that the Lady Wildcats locked into a 15-0 blitz that the Lady Hornets just couldn’t overcome.

North Little Rock closed out a 72-50 win to keep all its streaks intact.

Taylor Neal hit two free throws with :07.5 left in the game to snap a 37-37 tie as the Bryant Lady Hornets junior varsity team eked out a 39-37 win over the North Little Rock JV on Tuesday night.

North Little Rock had just tied the game with a 3-pointer but not all of the Lady Wildcats realized the game was tied. On the way up the floor, Neal reached midcourt and was shoved, one of those unintentional intentional fouls as if North Little Rock needed another possession.

And Neal made them pay, part of her 9 points in the game.

Editor’s note: This is a regular feature profiling senior athletes at Bryant High School.

NAME: Haley Montgomery

DATE OF BIRTH: April 17, 1992

PARENTS: Lance and Dixie Montgomery

SIBLINGS: I have a sister, Allison Montgomery. She’s 21.

FAVORITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL: Math

FAVORITE SPARE TIME ACTIVITY: Get on the computer

FAVORITE FOOD: Pizza, I guess. I don’t really know.

FAVORITE MUSIC ARTIST OR GROUP: Country or hip-hop, rap