A buzzer-beating shot kept Northside from getting to play in the title game of last week’s Coca-Cola Classic.

Friday, the Grizzlies get their chance at revenge, with much higher stakes this time.

The Grizzlies start the 6A-Central slate by traveling to face Bryant. When the two teams squared off a week ago, the Hornets’ Khalen Robinson hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to defeat Northside, 50-48.

Bryant went on to roll past Pulaski Robinson for the Coca-Cola Classic championship while Northside defeated Southside for third place.

“It’s going to be tough; our conference is going to be really, really tough,” Northside coach Eric Burnett said. “There’s five or six teams in our conference that have a chance of winning conference, and maybe not only winning conference but a chance to win state.”

The Grizzlies (9-5) have to go on the road for their first two conference games, Bryant on Friday and then Tuesday to Little Rock Central.

“Those two are really good teams and they are two of those teams I talked about that have a chance of winning it,” Burnett said. “We’ve just got to go try and steal us some on the road.”

Northside finished a challenging non-conference schedule, which included playing in tournaments at Arkansas, Missouri and Texas. The Grizzlies have still yet to play a game on the home court of Kaundart-Grizzly Fieldhouse.

“I think our non-conference season has gotten us ready to go on the road at Bryant because we’ve been on the road all season long,” Burnett said. “We’re looking forward to it and I’m excited to get this conference season rolling.”


Lady Bears


The Northside Lady Bears stand at 12-0 entering Friday’s 6A-Central opener at Bryant.

As far as coach Rickey Smith is concerned, those first 12 wins essentially don’t count because the wins and losses really matter starting now with conference play.

“It’s like I told my team, we’re winless this year,” Smith said. “It’s a whole new day.”

Smith added even though Northside has been in a lofty position all season, including being ranked No. 13 in the nation by MaxPreps.com, the Lady Bears may still be the third-best team in the 6A-Central behind Conway and North Little Rock.

“Conway’s been (beating) folks and they went to the biggest tournament in Texas (at Duncanville) over Christmas and got beat in overtime in the championship game, so they are without a doubt the team to beat right now,” Smith said. “And I think North Little Rock played a very demanding schedule.

“But I will say this for us, we have been showing improvement and more consistency, especially after going up to Missouri (the Pink and White Classic in Springfield, which Northside won the White bracket on Saturday).”


Northside’s conference schedule is even more challenging with Friday’s opener against a Bryant squad which comes in at 10-2.

“Bryant’s probably the surprise team, them and Cabot,” Smith said. “Bryant returned basically everybody and then they added a 6-(foot) 2 kid that had been out with a knee injury, and their only two losses were to Greenwood by two points and then to Little Rock Christian, who is arguably one of the top two or three teams overall in the state. ... Watching film on Bryant, they’re very, very athletic and they do a really good job controlling the tempo of the game.”
