North Little Rock girls roll past league foe Fort Smith Northside for Class 6A state title
By Jeff Halpern I Photos by Tommy Land
HOT SPRINGS — A year in which North Little Rock Coach Daryl Fimple felt was rewarding without any drama, complaints and parental interference ended with the perfect ending.
The Lady Charging Wildcats (28-4) won their fifth state championship in the past 13 years with a 60-38 victory over Fort Smith Northside (24-8), which was trying to win its ninth state title and win its second consecutive state championship.
“When I look at these seniors, the one thing I think about is the loyalty they’ve shown to this program,” said Fimple. “They were 16-14 two years ago and had teammates leave, but they struck with us and were rewarded.”
Northisde Coach Rickey Smith said, “I have to give North Little Rock a lot of credit. We started off this season with four new starters and were picked fourth in our conference. We lost our long-time assistant Merrill Mankin when he died over Thanksgiving and our kids overcame a lot and I’m very proud of what we did. This is the 13th time I’ve been to the state finals and it never feels good to lose, but hopefully in a few days we can look at this and be appreciate what we did.”
The Lady Charging Wildcats were led by Destine Duckworth, who finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Amauri Wiliams had 13 points and eight rebounds and was named state tournament MVP. April Edwards had 13 points and three rebounds. Ja’Miya Brown came off the bench to score 11 points and knock down 4 three-pointers.
As a team, North Little Rock won despite shooting 37.2 percent (16-of-43) from the floor. They made 7-of-15 three-pointers, 21-of-25 free throws, won the rebounding battle 33-21 and scored 28 points off 15 turnovers.
“I had a feeling on Monday we were going to do something special,” said Fimple. “I felt if we could keep them on the right side, we would be fine. I always feel like defense travels and we did a great job on them defensively.”
Northside was led by freshman Erianna Gooden, who had 16 point and played 30 minutes despite picking up her third foul at the 2:17 mark of the second quarter. Yonni Releford, who made the game-winning basket in last year’s state championship victory over Conway, was held to five points in 25 minutes after picking up her fourth foul at the 6:07 mark of the third quarter. Zoey Bershears picked up he fourth foul with 6:06 left in the game.
The Lady Bears shot 37.8 percent from the floor (14-of-37), including 1-of-12 on three-pointers.
“We struggled and turned the ball over a lot. We switched to a zone and then they started making threes,” said Smith. “We knew we had to take something away. We didn’t play well today and didn’t execute.”
North Little Rock jumped out to a 14-2 lead in the first quarter with Williams and Edwards scoring four points and Duckworth adding a three-point play. Northside scored the next six points on baskets by Releford, Gooden and Ashya Harris.
“Rickey likes to play six players and we felt we could attack them,” said Fimple. “Destine did a good job getting to the basket and Garin did a good job controlling the tempo.”
Harris added a three-pointer at the start of the first quarter to close it to 14-11 and then Brown scored the next 11 points thanks to 3 three-pointers. Edwards added two free throws at the 3:22 mark to make it 27-11.
“When they went to that zone, Ji’Miya stepped up and made some big shots.”
The Lady Charging Wildcats maintained that to the midway point of the third quarter before the Lady Bears mounted a rally.
Trailing 3-23, Gooden had a three-point play to make it 39-26 with 4:40 left in the third quarter. Kharys Washington drop the lane to make it 41-28 and Gooden closed the third quarter with a jumper to make it 41-30.
Harris started the fourth quarter with a drive to make it 41-32.
Edwards answered with a three-pointer to make it 44-32. She aded a free throw at the 6:06 mark to make it 45-32. After a drive by Gooden, Williams added two free throws at the 5:06 mark to make it 47-34. Williams rebounded Edwards miss to make it 49-34. After the media timeout at 3:46, Garin Freeman made two free throws to make it 51-34, ending any hopes of a comeback by the Lady Bears.
“When April hit that three to get it to 12 and then drove the lane, you could see their legs were getting tired,” said Fimple.
Smith said, “You love your kids and I’m proud of what we did. It hurts and we’ll learn from it.”
