Going into the final minute of the first quarter on Tuesday night at the Bryant Junior High gym, the Hornets’ freshman team was clinging to a 5-3 lead over the Fort Smith Kimmons Raiders. With 30 seconds left, Devin Holmes buried a 3-pointer to increase the margin. At the other end, Grant Johnson blocked a shot and the Hornets went into the first break up by 5.
As it turned out, that 3 started a 21-2 blitz that put the Hornets on the way to their first victory of the season.
A night after losing at Lake Hamilton, 52-29, the Hornets came away with a 46-22 win.
“We brought more energy from the beginning,” said Bryant freshman assistant coach Jonathan Rasburry, standing in for Hornets’ head coach Tyler Posey who was quarantined due to contract tracing for the coronavirus. “We did not do that against Lake Hamilton last night. I think that sparked our offense, which then sparked our defense. When you get easy buckets, it’s fun.”
And the Hornets had fun. Fourteen players got into the game and eight of them contributed to the scoring, led by Holmes with 15. Jamison Lewis came off the bench to score 9, Johnson had 7 and Trent Ford 6.
Bryant forced Kimmons into 19 turnovers and out-rebounded them 29-22. Joseph Nelson collected a game-high six boards.
Following up on his 3-pointer to end the first quarter, Holmes started the second quarter with an old-fashioned three-point play on a drive to the rack. In quick succession, the Hornets turned turnovers into three layups, two by Holmes and one by Johnson off a straight steal.
The Hornets led 17-3 when Ford went to the free-throw line with 2:58 left in the half. It was the game’s first one-and-one but only Ford seemed to realize that. He missed the front end but rebounded, scored and was fouled again. The three-point play made it 20-3.
Kimmons broke through with a pair of free throws at the 2:41 mark, their lone points of the second quarter. As it turned out, the Raiders went from 4:57 of the first quarter until 3:54 of the third quarter between field goals.
Lewis answered the free throws with a 3. He and Ford would add free throws in the last minute of the half, which ended with the Hornets up 26-5.
And when Holmes hit a 3 to start the second half, the Bryant lead had grown to 24 points.
The Raiders cut the margin to 18 but got no closer in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, the margin was never less than 17, just before the Hornets closed out the game with a 7-0 run:
Offensive-rebound baskets by Tyler McCormick and Devyn Steingisser then a 3 in the final seconds from Justen Myles.
Bryant is scheduled to host Little Rock Catholic on Thursday.
