It’s a week Northside Lady Bears basketball coach Rickey Smith likes to call “Gauntlet Week.”

That’s when the Lady Bears play back-to-back games against teams they are generally dueling with for the 6A-Central lead, Conway and North Little Rock.

While no doubt it will be another challenging “Gauntlet Week” in store for the Lady Bears, they face another difficult test beyond this week in order to ensure they can clinch the conference championship.

On Feb. 25, Northside goes to Cabot, which is currently sitting in second place in the 6A-Central, two games back of the Lady Bears. The Lady Panthers won at Conway last Friday with second place at stake.

“You’ve got to find a way to get it done,” Smith said after Northside’s 64-35 home win Friday against Mount St. Mary. “Luckily for us, our kids got a chance to play quality minutes (Friday) and improved and got better.”

This Tuesday, Northside (21-3, 10-0) heads to Conway to face a Lady Wampus Cat team which is coming off a pair of uncharacteristic home defeats. They lost to Cabot on Friday; then on Feb. 11, Conway (18-6, 7-3) lost at home to North Little Rock in an epic triple-overtime game.

Northside also brings a 16-game winning streak into Tuesday’s road test, not having lost a game since falling at home to Greenwood in the third-place game at the Taco Bell Tournament of Champions two months ago.

“That night after getting beat at home, there were a lot of questions,” Smith said. “I can tell you, from a coaching standpoint, we came back into practice that Monday and our kids bought in and had the best practice of the year; we focused on the solution and not the problem, but we’ve gotten better every day since then. ... Very, very proud of where we’ve come from.”

This Friday, the Lady Bears wrap up their home schedule with a game against North Little Rock for Senior Night. NLR is currently tied with Bryant for fourth in the Central at 6-4.


As for the Grizzlies, they remain in second place in the 6A-Central behind North Little Rock.

However, their chances of claiming the conference took a major hit on Friday with a home loss to Little Rock Catholic, the second straight season Catholic won at Kaundart-Grizzly Fieldhouse. This time, the Rockets overcame an early 13-1 deficit, as well as 24-8 early in the second quarter, to rally for a 47-46 win.

The next several games won’t get any easier for Northside (17-7, 7-3), which trails NLR by three games with four games to go.

Tuesday, the Grizzlies go to Conway (17-6, 6-4), which is tied for third place with Bryant. Then on Friday, Northside returns home to face first-place North Little Rock before going back on the road Feb. 25 to Cabot, which stands in fifth place in the 6A-Central.

Wrestling

Two Northside wrestlers and one Southside wrestler were among the first-place winners at Saturday’s 6A Big East Conference tournament, held at Cabot.

Northside senior Sutton Eddins claimed the title in the 126-pound weight class, while Grizzly junior Devin Potter did the same in the 195 class. Southside senior Joseph Williams took home the 285-pound title.


Eddins posted his championship by pinning Conway’s Isaiah Jellenik in a time of 1:42, as Eddins improved his record to 29-16. He advanced to the finals by getting a first-round technical fall decision of 18-1 and then needed just 33 seconds to pin his opponent in the semifinals.

Potter took first in the 195 class by picking up a 6-0 decision against North Little Rock’s Luke Pool in the finals as Potter moved to 32-9 on the season. He drew byes in each of the opening two rounds before getting a 6-3 decision in the semifinals.

As for Williams, he won his first-place championship after his opponent, Cabot’s Riley White, was injured right before the match. Williams is now 22-3 on the season.

In his first-round match, Williams got a pinfall in 1:02 before picking up a 5-0 decision in the semifinals.

Southside also had two conference runner-ups, as senior Quinlan Broadway placed second in the 120 class, and senior Preston Halley did the same in the 160.

Northside had a runner-up with Damon Loyha coming in second place in the 113.

Cabot claimed the team title with 224 points, while Little Rock Central came in second. Northside placed sixth with 78.5 points, and Southside was seventh with 65 points.

This week, both Northside and Southside will be involved at the 6A state wrestling tournament, which will be held at the Jack Stephens Center on the UA-Little Rock campus. Thursday will be the inaugural girls state tournament, with the boys state tournament set for Friday and Saturday, and the championship finals begin at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.
