Hornets’ win over Lonoke bittersweet
EDITOR’S NOTE: Because the look back at each day in Bryant athletic history has been so favorably received during the time when there was no sports during the COVID-19 shutdown, BryantDaily.com will continueposting past stories of Bryant athletics either posted on BryantDaily.com (from 2009 to the present) or published in the Bryant Times (from 1998 to 2008).
By ROB PATRICK
BRYANT TIMES
NORTH LITTLE ROCK — There wasn’t much of a celebration among the Bryant Hornets Monday night after a convincing 66-40 win over the Lonoke Jackrabbits in the first round of the Ortho Arkansas Invitational Tournament at Central Arkansas Christian High School. It had been a costly win. Senior forward Ben Olberts, eldest son of head coach Leo Olberts, suffered another injury.
Midway through the third quarter of Monday’s game, Olberts collided with a Lonoke player and hit the floor hard, the bulk of his weight falling on his right shoulder. His collarbone was fractured.
Heartbreakingly, it’s the third time in a row that Ben Olberts has had an injury cut into his season. He was hoping so much to finally get to play a full campaign after a foot injury shortened his sophomore season and a broken wrist ended his junior season prematurely.
“Anytime during the summer, you go to the gym, he’s there,” commented Bryant assistant coach Chad Withers after the game. “He’s really worked hard and you just hate for something like that to happen to him. It’s horrible. We don’t have anybody that works as hard as he does.”
The injury overshadowed a fine performance by the Hornets, particularly on defense. They forced Lonoke into 24 turnovers including nine in the first quarter. But Lonoke hit 5-of-6 3-pointers in that opening period to offset those miscues and build a 17-12 lead. Skippy Norman who accounted for four 3’s in the game, hit his fourth to start the second quarter and Bryant trailed 20-12.
It was reminiscent of Bryant’s first two games. This time, however, the Hornets, sparked by junior Bennie Elder’s play off the bench, rallied to take a 30-26 lead at the half.
Elder, hardly the tallest player on the floor, nonetheless proved the most determined and effective around the basket. He scored 11 points and pulled down five rebounds (including four on the offensive end) in the second quarter. His bucket with 2:45 left in the half tied the game at 23 and, after Lonoke’s Chris Jones answered, Elder took a snappy feed from point guard Scotty Yant and hit a layup to knot it again.
After a Lonoke miss, Elder was fouled inside. Though he missed both free throws — he was 6-for-9 at the line in the game — teammate Jaston Carter rebounded, missed and followed with a basket to give Bryant the lead for good.
Elder finished with 18 points, Carter 15. Josh Ridge added 12 and Jeremy Reeves 11.
Norman was the lone Lonoke player in double figures. He finished with 20 after having 16 in the first half.
Still, Bryant’s lead was just 37-34 going into the last 1:30 of the third period. Dwayne Chumley fed Ridge for a layup to start the tale-tell surge for the Hornets with 1:23 left in the quarter. It turned into a 13-0 run that ballooned into a 27-4 outburst.
A basket by Reeves, a free throw by Chumley and a late bucket by Elder made it 44-34 going into the third quarter. A baseline jumper by Yant, a layup off a turnover by Ridge and a 15-foot jay by Reeves made it 50-34 before Lonoke’s Jeremy McCain ended his team’s extended dryspell.
Bryant answered with a 9-0 spurt.
“We knew they were going to give us some problems with their quickness,” noted Withers. “They play a lot of man and they switch, so we’ve been working on that a little bit.
“All three games we’ve played, if we could come out and play in the first half like we do in the second half, it’d be a whole lot easier on us,” he added. “But I was proud of the way we keep coming in at the half, adjusting and going out there and playing.”
With the win, the Hornets, 2-1, were set to take on Little Rock Mills in the semifinals on Thursday at 9 p.m.
