NHS LADY BEARS ADVANCE TO 6A SEMIFINALS

When 6A-Central foes Northside and Bryant played in the regular season, the Lady Bears led big early before Bryant made a late push. The Lady Hornets made things interesting again when the two teams faced off in Thursday’s 6A quarterfinals. Northside went up by 20 points early in the second half before Bryant was able to cut the Lady Bear lead into single digits. But a big shot from Tracey Bershers to end the third quarter eventually allowed the Lady Bears to regain momentum as they moved on to the 6A semifinals with a 55-37 win at Bentonville West High School. “I thought we came out and played really well early, shot the ball really, really well, but all three games we’ve played Bryant made a (second-half) run,” Northside coach Rickey Smith said. “You’ve got to give them credit, they’re a very explosive offensive team and they’re quick, they’re hard to guard. ... We get a little bit of a lead and then start playing a little passive offensively, then all of a sudden they get really, really aggressive.” After Northside (26-1) went up by 20, 37-17, on a 3-pointer from Sara Bershers to start the second half, Bryant reeled off 11 straight points to trail by nine. It was still a nine-point game with two seconds left in the third quarter, when Sara Bershers inbounded the ball on the baseline. She fired a pass to her younger sister Tracey near the top of the key, and Tracey Bershers promptly let it fly from 17 feet, with the ball gliding through the net as the buzzer sounded, putting Northside back up by double digits, 40-29. ?(Sara) passed it to me and I shot my open shot and I hit it, so it was a big shot and we needed it at the time,” Tracey Bershers said. “It just kind of changed the momentum that we needed.” The Lady Hornets got within nine points at one more juncture, 44-35, when Kalia Walker hit a 3 with more than six minutes left. But from there, it was all Northside, beginning with an 11-0 run to forge another 20-point advantage. Sophomore guard Jersey Wolfenbarger, who had picked up her fourth foul in the third quarter, had five of the first seven points during that 11-point surge, all coming at the free-throw line. “We just understood that this was going to be a game of runs, especially in the state tournament, where everybody’s going to continue to play,” Wolfenbarger, who finished with 16 points, said. “So we knew we had to match their intensity; if they made a run, we had to make a run and we had to stop their run.” Sara Bershers, who also had 16 points, capped the 11-0 run with four straight free throws, the last two coming with 1:42 left to put Northside up by 20, 55-35. “I’m proud of our kids for stepping up when they got it down to nine points,” Smith said. “We stepped up and hit a big shot or two, kind of gave us a little momentum and then the shot there at the end of the third quarter, that was a critical shot.” Smith added the Lady Bears were also able to just settle down after Bryant made its move in the third quarter. “We settled down, we quit turning the ball over, got back on defense and got our defense set,” Smith said. “I thought we started attacking the high post; when Jersey got in foul trouble we moved Sara up top and that took away our aggressiveness on the offensive end. We got a chance to move Sara back to the high post and she started getting a lot more aggressive.” Wolfenbarger and Sara Bershers combined to make seven 3's. Along with those two, senior Tiya Douglas was also in double figures with 12 points. Northside scored the game’s first five points and built a 16-2 lead as Wolfenbarger scored eight of those points, making two 3's in the process. The Lady Bears led by as many as 18 points in the second quarter, when Wolfenbarger hit another 3 for a 30-12 advantage, before settling for a 17-point margin at halftime. Tracey Bershers finished with 11 rebounds, while Sara Bershers had six boards and six assists. Douglas and Jazz Coleman added seven and five rebounds, respectively. The Lady Bears return to Bentonville West for the 6A semifinals, where they will play at noon Saturday against Fayetteville, a 55-49 winner in overtime Thursday against North Little Rock, which had been the only team to beat Northside all season. ?(Thursday) was a big win, we get to go home now, we get to get some rest and then get ready to play a heck of a game Saturday in the semifinals,” Smith said.

NHS LADY BEARS ADVANCE TO 6A SEMIFINALS

BUCK RINGGOLD

Times Record | 3/1/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Brian D. Sanderford