On a Monday afternoon between Christmas and New Year’s, a pair of undefeated teams battled at Hornet Arena and, behind 28 points from Camren Hunter, a strong defensive effort and a 44-26 rebounding advantage, the Bryant Hornets emerged still unscathed with a 65-46 win over the Marion Patriots.
Coming in, the Patriots had won games by 41, 32, 36, 27, 16 and 20. Their lone close victory was 58-57 over Little Rock Central, a conference rival of Bryant’s. Their 46 points was by far the least the Patriots had scored in a game this season.
The Hornets, who led at the half 22-20, outscored the visitors 43-26 in the second half.
“Marion’s a good team and we knew when we scheduled them that it was going to be a huge test for us,” said Hornets head coach Mike Abrahamson. “They’re physical and they test you on your blocking out. They test you on how well you pass the ball and we failed that test because we turned it over like 24 times — literally 24. That’s not exaggerating.
“That’s three games worth of turnovers that we just committed,” he emphasized. “A lot of that is a credit to them. They test you in several ways. They’ve had a lot of success the last few years. They’re well coached. They’ve got talent and they play a really aggressive style.”
But Marion shot just 32 percent from the field (18 of 57) and only made seven of 19 free throws. The Patriots committed just 13 turnovers and 13 of their 26 rebounds came on the offensive end.
“Our guys, I thought, really defended well,” Abrahamson said. “And I thought they rebounded well for the most part. I thought we fouled too much, but I thought we defended them really, really well for most of the game.
“And that kept us in the game at the beginning because we couldn’t score,” he noted.
In fact, the game was tied 2-2 at the 2:30 mark of the first half. A 3-pointer by Austin Schroeder put the Hornets ahead.
Marion’s Ryan Forrest hit a short jumper but a pull-up jumper in the lane by Jalen Montgomery had the Hornets up 7-4 at the break.
A three-point play by Jayden Forrest, who led his team with 19 points, had the Patriots within 10-9 early in the second period but Aiden Adams, off a dish from Cory Nichols, pumped in a 3 to extend the margin for Bryant. Baskets by Hunter and Nichols made it 17-9.
Marion rallied with a 9-0 run to take the lead. Darrius Waterford had a layup then Jayden Forrest hit a 3 then a follow shot a few minutes later to make it 20-19 going into the final minute of the half.
With 11 seconds left, Hunter splashed a trey giving Bryant the edge at the half.
“Once we got some better movement on offense and we were able to create some opportunities that we like to get, kick-out 3’s and just ball movement, reversals and drives by certain people, things like that, our guys were able to keep up that disruptive defense,” Abrahamson said. “And I think it wore on them. It looked like it wore on them a little bit.”
Waterford canned a 3 to start the second half, giving the Patriots their final lead of the game. An old-fashioned three-point play by Hunter put Bryant on top to stay. Kade Ruffner, who scored 11 for the Hornets, added a 3-pointer to push the margin to 5.
A surge sparked by Ryan Forrest kept Marion close. It was 34-29 before Adams drained a triple and Hunter followed up with a 12-foot jay to extend the lead to 10 for the first time.
Jamaury Mosley hit a jumper in the lane with 1:02 left in the third quarter. Adams missed a 3 but followed his shot and got the rebound. He whipped the ball to Ruffner, who knocked down a 3 with :27 left to make it 42-31 going into the fourth quarter.
Hunter was fouled following his own miss. He hit two free throws. He added a driving jumper on the next possession and the lead grew to 46-31.
Waterford hit a free throw, but Nichols fed Gavin Brunson for a layup before Hunter cashed in a steal with a pair of free throws as the lead ballooned to 50-32.
The Hornets were 13 of 16 from the line down the stretch. Still, Marion gamely battled back to get within 13 with 2:09 left.
But Bryant burned their press after that. Ruffner and Hunter had consecutive layups and, after Mosley hit a free throw, Nichols hit two, re-establishing the 18-point lead the Hornets had held earlier.
The Hornets improved to 8-0 this season with the victory. They’ll host Little Rock Hall on Tuesday afternoon at 1 to wrap up the non-conference portion of their schedule. They open play in the 6A-Central Conference at home against Fort Smith Northside on Tuesday, Jan. 5.
HORNETS 65, PATRIOTS 46
Score by quarters
Marion 4 16 11 15 — 46
BRYANT 7 15 20 23 — 65
PATRIOTS (7-1) 46
J.Forrest 7-15 3-5 19, R.Forrest 5-15 0-2 10, McDonald 2-6 1-2 5, Waterford 2-6 1-4 6, Kyzar 1-4 0-2 2, Mosley 1-6 2-4 4, Daniel 0-0 0-0 0, Cheers Jr. 0-5 0-0 0, Moore 0-0 0-0 0, Pitchford 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-57 (32%) 7-19 (37%) 46.
HORNETS (8-0) 65
Nichols 1-4 5-9 7, Ruffner 4-8 1-2 11, Hunter 9-16 8-9 28, Adams 2-7 2-2 8, Diggins 2-3 0-0 4, Brunson 1-1 0-0 2, Schroeder 1-3 0-0 3, Montgomery 1-1 0-0 2, George 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 21-44 (48%) 16-22 (73%) 65.
Three-point field goals: Bryant 7-21 (Adams 2-7, Hunter 2-6, Ruffner 2-4, Schroeder 1-2, Nichols 0-1, George 0-1), Marion 3-7 (J.Forrest 2-4, Waterford 1-1, R.Forrest 0-1, Cheers Jr. 0-1). Turnovers: Bryant 25, Marion 13. Rebounds: Bryant 14-30 44 (Brunson 2-8 10, Hunter 1-8 9, Ruffner 1-7 8, Adams 1-4 5, Nichols 2-2 4, Diggins 4-0 4, team 3-1 4), Marion 13-13 26 (McDonald 4-4 8, J.Forrest 4-1 5, R.Forrest 2-2 4, Mosley 0-2 2, Waterford 0-1 1, Daniel 0-1 1, Cheers Jr. 0-1 1, team 3-1 4). Team fouls: Bryant 13, Marion 20.
