In a 6A State Tournament bracket already stocked with upsets, another one unfolded Saturday afternoon at Hornet Arena.

Unfortunately for the defending 6A state champion Northside Grizzlies, they were the latest to unexpectedly fall short.

Little Rock Central, mainly playing a deliberate style of basketball, took the lead late in the third quarter and kept it the rest of the way, fighting off a late Grizzly charge to post a 40-37 upset win in the 6A semifinals.

“That’s why they toss that ball up. ... Those guys came out and made plays, they made plays when they had to make a play, and they did,” Northside coach Eric Burnett said.

“They did (have a great game plan to slow down the game) and they made us panic in the first half. They came out stalling the ball and we panicked. ... The second half, we kind of relaxed a little bit and played catch-up the whole time, but (Central) had a good game plan and I give them credit.”

And now Central (18-12), the No. 4 seed from the 6A-Central which knocked out Springdale Har-Ber in the quarterfinals, is moving on to the 6A title game next Saturday night in Hot Springs.

The Tigers will play the winner of Saturday night’s other semifinal between Fayetteville and Conway, which upset 6A-Central North Little Rock in Friday’s quarterfinals.

Saturday’s loss also ended the Grizzlies’ bid for a fourth straight trip to Hot Springs.

They won the 7A championship there in 2017 and the 6A championship last season, while reaching the 7A title game in 2018.

“It’s like I told those guys, Isaiah (Joe), Tevin Brewer got this started and I give these seniors credit for keeping it going and now they’re passing the torch to (the underclassmen), and now it’s time for our next group to come up,” Burnett said. “There are a lot of people across the state of Arkansas, and to my opinion in the toughest conference at the highest level, that have never had (a run) like that; so I told (the players) they need to hold their head up high when they walk out of this room.”

The Tigers, who lost to Northside by 19 points in both regular-season conference games, came out in a stall tactic. They ran the first 2:30 off the clock before attempting a shot.

Though the Grizzlies took a five-point lead early in the second quarter, the Tigers continued to show patience. They clawed back with an 11-3 run to end the first half with a 22-17 advantage.

Northside (20-10) answered right out of the gate after halftime with an 8-0 run, which included a pair of driving shots from senior Garrett Keller, to regain the lead, 25-22. But Central responded with an 8-0 run of its own.

The Tigers then built a seven-point lead, 37-30, on a 3-pointer from Cody Robinson with 5:40 remaining.

Northside didn’t go away. The Grizzlies got to within two, 37-35, when Keller hit a foul shot with 58 seconds left.


Central went back up by four with 29 seconds left on a pair of free throws from Corey Camper. The Tigers then had a chance to build the lead even more after grabbing a missed Grizzly shot, but missed two foul shots.

With 4.4 seconds left, Grizzly senior Maury Owens drew a foul. He went to the line and hit both for a two-point Northside deficit. Central’s Christian Price was fouled on the other end with 2.5 seconds left, and hit 1-of-2 foul shots, which left the door open for the Grizzlies.

The Grizzlies got the ball in the hands of their leading scorer, Jaylin Williams, who received a long pass from Keller before immediately turning around and launching a shot from beyond the arc. However, the ball hit the back of the rim and bounced away as time expired.

?(Williams got a good look at the basket), and you know it happens like that sometimes; some go in and some don’t, and it’s just part of life and in the game of basketball,” Burnett said.

“Basketball is a game of spurts, and they had theirs and we had ours and at the end, they had one more than us and that’s why they won by three.”

In his final game of his tremendous career as a Grizzly, Williams — a University of Arkansas commit — finished with 17 points and also grabbed 13 rebounds. Central’s top scorer was senior guard Jeremiah Jones with 13 points, which included three first-half 3's.
