Last year was pretty favorable to Northside basketball player Noah Gordon.

In the early portion of 2019, Gordon helped win the Grizzlies a game on a buzzer-beating shot. Later, he was an integral part of the Grizzlies’ state tournament run that resulted in a championship.

Then, in his final game of the year, Gordon helped lead Northside to a Coca-Cola Classic title and was named to the All-Tournament team.

“I feel like I’ve grown and became a better offensive scorer, defender and rebounder,” Gordon, a 6-foot-4 senior guard/forward, said. “It’s all coming together now; it’s my senior year, so I didn’t want to miss out so I want to go all out every game and just do my best.

“Last year was a big step for me, giving me more confidence, giving us a lot more confidence to just do better as a team.”

Gordon has also improved his numbers from his junior season.

So far, he’s been averaging 8.5 points a game, up two points from last season’s average.

But Gordon has also had higher rebounding totals, going from 3.2 boards as a junior to 5.1 boards a game this season. Of his 66 total rebounds, 27 have come on the offensive glass.

“He’s been doing really good, especially now where he’s kind of been more aggressive attacking people off the dribble and going to the hole,” Northside coach Eric Burnett said. “And one of the things he’s really been doing a good job at for us is rebounding, especially on the defensive end, so he’s been doing really good.


“The way he jumps, I want him to do a better job rebounding and he’s done that. The main thing, the overall deal is I just want him to be more aggressive with the ball in his hands.”

That was something Gordon did in the Grizzlies’ second 6A-Central game a year ago, when he took a pass in the corner with time running out and launched a 3 to beat Little Rock Central on the road.

Then in March, Gordon had 10 points and three boards in the Grizzlies’ 6A quarterfinal win against Fayetteville. The next night, he scored nine points and grabbed four rebounds in Northside’s semifinal win against Conway en route to the Grizzlies’ 6A championship the following week.

Burnett believes the solid performances Gordon had at state has helped him improve this season. In fact, in Northside’s season opener, Gordon had a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds in the team’s win at Tulsa Memorial.

“Yes he did (play well at state), and I think he’s carried that over to the beginning of this year,” Burnett said. “I’ve just wanted him to kind of relax and shoot the ball a little bit better, but overall he’s doing a really good job for us.”

In addition, Gordon has emerged as a scoring option whenever opposing teams focus on shutting down the Grizzlies’ talented frontcourt of 6-10 Jaylin Williams and 6-6 Braylin McKinley.

“They are continually triple-teaming and double-teaming Jaylin and Braylin a lot, so that gives us more of an opportunity to score and step up and hit shots and also give us more open shots and better looks for us,” Gordon said.


In last week’s Coke Classic, Gordon scored 25 points in the Grizzlies’ three games, including 10 in the semifinal win against Little Rock Fair.

He was named to the All-Tournament team, but most importantly, Gordon wanted to win the championship. Northside did just that, beating Little Rock Hall 43-38 as Gordon scored eight points in the win.

“I feel like I did pretty good,” Gordon said. “I think I could have done a lot better, but we did what we had to do to get the win and that’s all that matters. ... (Making All-Tournament) was a big goal for me coming into this tournament, I was looking forward to that.

“We had two heartbreaking losses in our 10th and 11th grade year (in the Coke Classic semifinals), and coming into our senior year, we knew that we had a good chance to win this and it was a big goal for all of us and we got it done.”

With the Coke Classic title, Northside (9-4) won its seventh straight game.

This Saturday, the Grizzlies finally have their home opener as they take on Greenwood in the final non-conference tune-up.

“We’ve been doing pretty good,” Burnett said. “The one thing that I’ve liked is we’ve been able to bond because a bunch of games have been on the road and we’ve spent a lot of time together and now, you’re coming home to your home crowd and hopefully, they get out there and perform for the home crowd.”


And Gordon, who has a 3.7 grade-point average and is wanting to continue his basketball career at the collegiate level somewhere, thinks that if the team can continue to play the way they have lately, another state title may be in the cards.

“We’re just going to have to play together and just play how we’ve been playing,” Gordon said. “We’ve been playing great, but we’ve got to pick it up now that conference is starting.

“That’s going to be big for us; we want to play together and just learn from each other and learn from our mistakes and that’s going to make us better.”

Saturday’s home game with Greenwood will tip off around 6 p.m., following the conclusion of the Northside-Greenwood girls game, set for approximately 4:30 p.m.

Northside then opens 6A-Central play on Jan. 10 at home against Bryant in a rematch of the 6A title game from last season.
