BELL RINGS; KO DELIVERED

Little Rock Parkview could not answer the Bell. Watson Chapel junior post player Jerica Bell scored 18 points and grabbed 19 rebounds as the Lady Wildcats rolled to a 64-46 victory over the Lady Patriots on Thursday afternoon in the Class 5A state championship game in front of 4,289 fans at the Bank of the Ozarks Arena. Bell compiled 14 of her points and 11 of her rebounds in the first two quarters as the Lady Wildcats (30-3) jumped out to a 34-17 halftime advantage. Parkview (28-4) was never closer than 16 points in the second half. "We thought she was the key," Watson Chapel Coach Leslie Henderson said of the 5-11 Bell. "We always play inside out. Some teams have put three people on her in the paint in the past. Tonight, they just happened not to do that and she was ready to play." Bell's 19 rebounds tied for the third most in a state championship game. Cari Tanneberger holds the record with 25 rebounds for Fayetteville in 1994. Bell was 8 of 10 from the floor, 2 of 4 from the free-throw line, and she also handed out a team-high three assists. She did not shoot nor score in the fourth quarter, but by then, Watson Chapel's lead was 49-27. "[Bell] made it easier for me," said MVP Peyton Martin, who scored a game-high 20 points to go along with 9 rebounds and 4 blocked shots. "Since she was hitting her shots, I was able to get more shots later in the game." Parkview was held to its second-lowest scoring output of the season and had a 13-game winning streak snapped. The Lady Patriots were outrebounded 49-17, scored only nine second-chance points and made 17 of 58 shots from the floor. Despite forcing Watson Chapel into 28 turnovers, the Lady Patriots never seemed to be in sync. "We couldn't buy a basket in the first half," Parkview Coach Lahoma Howard said. "And throughout the whole game, we missed a whole lot of easy baskets. Had we made those, it would have made for some better competition." Senior guard Timesha Cole hit a three-pointer 18 seconds into the contest, and Watson Chapel never trailed. The Lady Wildcats led 11-1 after Martin's three-footer with 5:09 left in the first quarter. Parkview junior guard Kania Lasker put some life into the Lady Patriots with back-to-back field goals, and senior center Sydni Williams followed with a putback that pulled Parkview to within 11-7, but two consecutive field goals by Bell ended Parkview's surge. "It was not easy," said Bell, who tallied her final points at the 5:27 mark of the third quarter. "By the end, I was tired." "Parkview plays a game of runs," Henderson said. "They'd score six or seven points in a row. The key was getting a stop and not allowing those runs to get any bigger." Watson Chapel hit 20 of 36 shots, including 3 of 6 from three-point range. The Lady Wildcats kept Parkview from getting back in the game by hitting 21 of 30 free-throw attempts. "They surprised me with how well they shot," said Williams, who finished with a team-high 11 points and six rebounds for the Lady Patriots. "Especially the threes. I didn't know they would shoot the way they did." Lasker scored all eight of her points in the first half, and she also came up with four steals. Morgan Brady and Mikayla Alexander each scored eight points for Parkview. Cole finished with 14 points, hitting all four of her free-throw attempts. Cayla Trotter hit 7 of 9 free-throw attempts, finished with 9 points and collected a game-high 6 steals for Watson Chapel. "There were two things we really had to do and one was we had to block out and another was that we had to take care of the ball," said Henderson, whose team committed 18 turnovers in the final two quarters. "We did the first, and the second one, well I'm glad we had that lead going into the half because we had way too many turnovers. In the end, it didn't matter because we pulled it out."

Parkview Magnet High School Athletics

BELL RINGS; KO DELIVERED

Photo Credit: Stephen B. Thornton