[00:00:00] Speaker A: Winter weather all over Arkansas has put a halt over everything for the time being. But hopefully warmer days are ahead, and so is basketball. This is prep rally.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: You're listening to the prep rally podcast. Now here's your host, Graham Thomas.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Welcome to the Prep rally podcast sponsored by West Termite, Pest and lawn. I'm Graham Thomas with the northwest Arkansas Crack Gazette. We're having a special zoom podcast today because of all the icy, snowy weather. Rick fires joins us somewhere in northwest Arkansas, I think Prairie Grove. And down the river valley, we've got Leland Barclay and a special guest today, Walter Woody, who is joining in on the podcast. And, gentlemen, good to see you guys, even if it's by zoom.
Let's start down the river valley. Walter and Leland, the dynamic duo. How you guys doing down there?
[00:00:53] Speaker C: Cold.
[00:00:54] Speaker D: Cold. But I'm legally allowed to play hooky with no school today.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: I hear you, Rick. You doing all right over there, man?
[00:01:03] Speaker E: I just got out of a snowbank run in here and if my dog rally comes and needs to go outside, so I got to put my winter hat on instead of my work hat. You guys okay with this?
[00:01:15] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:01:16] Speaker C: It looks warm. I may have to get one of those.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: That may be the ugliest hat I've ever seen.
[00:01:22] Speaker D: He looks like one of the Mackenzie boys from.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: It definitely has been a cold last few days. Temperatures fallen below zero in northwest Arkansas. Brutal wind chill. And I know it's been extremely cold and snowy in the river valley. School's been canceled for days on seems, you know, basketball games have been postponed.
But this all kind of started last week whenever some teams had to start moving some ball games to Thursday. And I remember seeing Leland Barclay's tweet about to the teams that did move them to Thursday. Congratulations. You did the right thing. Something like that. So we're going to start with the six a West games that we did have on Thursday.
They're all sweeps. Bentonville swept Springdale, Fayetteville swept Southside, and Springdale harbor swept Bentonville. West Rogers and heritage did not move their games to Thursday. They were going to try and play Friday and just weren't able to do so. And they're going to make that game up on the 25th. So takeaways from those six a West games, guys, I was over at Springdale harbor and watched both harbor teams roll.
Not a big surprise in either of them. But the one highlight I have coming out of the boys game, Cortland Mulru, I think everybody would agree, is one of the league's, if not the league's best player. He's in the top two or know he doesn't start the game against Bentonville west, and West takes a lead after the first quarter.
Moldrew finally enters the game in the second quarter, and it's like the game just turned on its heels.
Harbor rolls. Molder scores 21 points over the next two quarters, and harbor rolls to a win, Jermaine five. And how about you guys down there? What you guys saw on Thursday night, Leland, I know you were somewhere. You were at Cedarville, and we'll talk about that, too. But Walter, you had Southside and Fayetteville.
[00:03:39] Speaker D: I believe, right because of deadlines. I covered the girls first, but while writing, I was watching the boys a little bit, and Fayetteville jumped on them at the start and really never let them in the game. The final score was 67 43, but at one time they got it up over 30 to invoke the running clock. But they played just dominant. They were athletically bigger, stronger, faster. They were able to get out on the break and get some easy layups and dunks. They ran their offense well. They were pretty smooth. And defensively they were able to constantly harass Southside, never really let them get into true any sort of sets.
The girls game was also interesting in that Fayetteville played really well.
The big thing I remember coach Rimmer talking about after the game was he said, and knew it was going to be a good game when girls are fighting for offensive rebounds and they're diving for loose balls, he said, you get those two things. Everything else takes care of itself.
[00:04:53] Speaker C: Well, I think the biggest thing, the biggest takeaway from Thursday night's games or Thursday night game for the bulldogs is that Fayetteville now is two and O and Fort Smith this year. They've already got the two longest road trips out of the way, and that's a big start for them.
[00:05:10] Speaker D: Yes, it is. Yes, that is an important start. That's one less travel. That's one's less travel. They don't have to worry about any games over the mountain. Everything's now, what, 30 minutes or less? I mean, Bentonville west is probably their longest road trip from this point.
[00:05:28] Speaker A: Rick, you had the night off Thursday night, if I'm not mistaken.
We were planning to send you out to a one a game, and that one ended up getting canceled as well.
[00:05:38] Speaker E: Yeah, but it was the right thing to do. Like I said, we're going to have some games stacked up. This is Arkansas. We're going to get a snow day.
3456. They're going to be plenty more days to play and get the fans out. But I have seen fable, like the last three times I saw last Friday, I think, and they've got three straight fable team.
I don't know what they're doing down in Central Conference, but I know Little Rock Central is really good. I saw them up here against Harvard, double overtime game. But fable, they got the big man, DJ Hudson underneath. He's like 6766 sophomore. They got Xavier Brown to run the point and Jaden Haney, man, a swing guy. Man has really come on. So, man, just really looking forward to seeing all kind of basketball, especially that big time game we got coming Saturday night, right?
[00:06:39] Speaker D: I could tell you a little bit about the Central, Rick. Right now, the two best teams in the central are Bryant and North Little Rock, and both of them have already beaten. Central is owing two in the six a central with their losses to Bryant North Little Rock. And I saw Bryant north little Rock meet in the finals of the foster roofing holiday classic, formerly known as the Coke Classic.
And that was a heck of team. You put those three teams along with Fayetteville and Harbor, and you're going to have just those five teams right there are probably your best five going into the state tournament as of right now.
[00:07:18] Speaker A: Okay, so want to switch gears here real quick? We've got to talk. Know the one game that was played on Friday night, Alma did make the trip over to Russellville. I know, Leland, you kind of kept an eye on this one. But the Alma boys take down the Cyclones at Cyclone arena and are now still undefeated in league play.
[00:07:40] Speaker C: Well, and they didn't need a buzzer beater at the end to win it, to win an exciting game. I mean, they took an early lead, nine to seven on a Camden curd three pointer, and they led from there on out and stretched it out and won, I thought, pretty handily.
Alma, I think, has the most impressive resume to this point in the five a West because they already have a win at Harrison. And then that win at Russellville, that's two gigantic road wins to open up five a West play. And Israel towns Robinson inside, he's a defensive end. He was an all conference defensive end. And then they've got Easton Boggs, who can hit three pointers, Camden Curd, who can hit three pointers. Carmani Smith handles the ball well. Alma's got all the ingredients.
[00:08:39] Speaker D: And, you know, you were talking about Harrison. We were talking in the earlier podcast that Harrison's owing two in the conference, and they've got a big game at Van Buren on Friday. You don't want to drop to Owen three. There's very few teams that drop, that start owing three in a 14 game conference schedule and fight their way back to earnest state tournament. Burr and Van Buren also will need that win to keep pace with Alma right now in the conference because they'll have their showdown pretty soon.
[00:09:11] Speaker A: One of the unfortunate casualties of the weather. And we'll get into some of that in the next segment. But I will talk about right here. Know we didn't get to have the Van Buren Alba matchup on Tuesday like we had hoped for. It would have been a battle of undefeated teams. And this was because Van Buren beat the Mountain home boys in a really good game. Leland, you were at that one as well.
[00:09:35] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:09:36] Speaker C: 77 61. All five starters for Van Buren scored in double digits, which is the second time they've done that this year. And I think four times they've had four starters in double digits. So very balanced. They've got the three seniors kind of the pointer triplets. Glavin McDonald, Drew Braswell and Jackson Kazelle. Man, those guys, all three year starters, all seniors, and they can all play. And then you throw in AG Denton inside and Trenton Cooley of ESPN fame at this point.
So they're another team, a very well rounded team that's off to a good start.
[00:10:23] Speaker D: Grammy, you're talking about makeups or whatever. Speaking of teams, Harrison is the one that's really behind the eight ball, too, because just like Rogers, they did not move up their game with Greenwood last Thursday, and they're going to have to make that one up down the line also.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I think we would all agree that perhaps the number one casualty of the weather this past week was Fayetteville and Harbor boys did not get to play on Tuesday night. And I think everybody was looking forward to seeing how that one turned out. But the good news is they're going to play this week. So we're going to take a little break, and when we come back, we will look at the week ahead and try to make some sense over some of these makeup games you're listening to.
[00:11:08] Speaker B: Prep rally if you're enjoying this podcast, consider a newspaper subscription to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette or the River Valley Democrat Gazette. We have a special offer for our podcast listeners, so visit nwanline.com nwapodcast to get started. You can also click the subscribe button on our websites, nwanline.com and rivervallydemocratgazette.com or call us at 479-684-5509 and be sure to say that you're a podcast listener. Now back to the show.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: Welcome back to the prep rally podcast sponsored by West Termite, Pest and lawn Graham Thomas and Rick fires from northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Leland Barclay and special guest Walter Woody, who is not playing hooky from school this week. He has a snow day, joins us on the got. You know, we're going to have a lot of basketball crammed into the next few days here, really, starting Thursday night. We have some makeup games being played, and then we got a full slate of action on Friday and then another full slate of action on, uh, we'll kind of get into it Thursday night. Bentonville and Bentonville west are supposed to hook up in Centerton in a conference game. And I know on the five a west side, no asylum Springs is going to go to Greenwood. So that's going to kind of get us back into it. And then we've got our full slate of games coming up this week and the one that I'm kind of pointing to, although the teams that are in this game can't exactly point to it yet because they got to play Friday night. But I'm looking at the Springdale harbor at Fayetteville, doubleheader on the boys and girls side, but on the boys side, you have a pair of teams that are five and conference play. And we're going to know a lot more about the five a West conference on the boys side after that game is played on Saturday night.
[00:13:09] Speaker E: Rick canceling game on Tuesday, postponing the game. And the good news is Saturday, you know what, I remember growing up as a kid watching the Saturday night special when they had all the music groups come in and play on Saturday night. And this is a Saturday night special as far as high school basketball. My goodness. Number one, Springdale harbor. And number three, fable, I think harbor, 17.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: One.
[00:13:34] Speaker E: Fable, 17. Both five and o and conference. My goodness.
If I wasn't a sportswriter, if I was going around town looking for something to do, that'd be a game I'd want to see. Absolutely. So I think we really, after this week, then the shuffling really starts, the stacking up on the teams.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: Well, whoever wins this game is going to be in the driver's seat in the six A west.
If you're talking about this individual talent, harbor has Courtland Moldrew and Jackson Conley, probably the best one two scoring punch. But then, Rick, you mentioned Fayetteville. They've got Ornette Gaines, they've got Jaden Haney. They've got, you know, and they've got just a know Xavier Brown. They've got a lot of good players.
You know, I'm sure they've heard a lot about harbor and they real happy know. They're kind of second fiddle in that conversation at the moment.
[00:14:31] Speaker E: And that's thing I try to tell people they're going to see. These guys are going to be on a college stage somewhere. I don't know if it's SEC high division one somewhere. And so, you know, for you people sitting at home watching Montana State or something, or Creighton on a Friday, Saturday night, get out there and watch some of these kids, these stars of know, even if I weren't assigned to that game, that's something I'd enjoy going to watch because you're going to see some excellent athletes up and down the court. This is big time basketball.
[00:15:06] Speaker D: I think the big thing on that game, let's try not to get too far ahead, especially if you harbor, because you play Springdale on Friday night. If you're looking ahead a little bit too far, thinking about Fayetteville, Springdale is capable of pulling off an upset.
The Bentonville Bentonville west game had already been scheduled, but it works out for both teams because I think it's Bentonville has to play back to back Thursday, Friday, but they're off Saturday, whereas West is off Friday. So they play really not. So that game doesn't really interfere of a three game week. It's actually a two game week for both teams, just like most everybody else on this schedule.
[00:15:56] Speaker C: Well, and how about Springdale hosting Northside on Friday and then, of course, the big game against harbor on Saturday. So it's two of the biggest nights of the year, really in the six a West.
[00:16:08] Speaker D: Now, if harbor gets through it, because that's a road game. And here's where I agree with you. If harbor was to win both games, they would have a real leg up because they will have one at Fayetteville. Fayetteville wins. Harbor can sit there and go, okay, we'll play them the second time at our place. But if you go and win on the other team's home will, like you said earlier, harbor could be in the driver's seat.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: By the way, I think the rematch for Harbor, Springdale, is set for the last weekend, the last week of the season, regular season on a Tuesday night.
[00:16:48] Speaker D: That last week there is a set on Friday. But yeah, you're right.
[00:16:52] Speaker A: All right, well, let's change gears down to the five a west. And guys, what are you all looking forward to down there? This week.
[00:17:00] Speaker C: Oh, I tell you, the biggest game is Greenwood at Mountain home on Friday for the girls. They've already been tested once on the road at Russellville. This is the other major test for the Lady Bulldogs at Mountain home because I think Mountain home is in the same class as Russellville. I mean, those three teams have pretty much separated themselves this early. So if Greenwood, like we were talking about in the six a west and Springdale harbor and Fayetteville, if Greenwood can win that one, obviously now they have a huge leg up with two road wins. However, if Mountain home can win that game now, boy, it's going to be an exciting final, what, six weeks in the five a west.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: It seemed like in reading your story and talking to you after that Greenwood Russellville game, Leland, I think Greenwood learned a lot about itself in playing that Russellville game because they got off to a great start and then kind of maybe let their foot off the gas. Something tells me if they get the chance to do that again, they're not taking the foot off the gas.
[00:18:10] Speaker C: The next game they played at home was against Van Buren, and of course, they didn't let their foot off on that one. But I talked to senior Brooklyn Wolsey after that game, and the main thing I wanted to ask her was, what was practice like after that Russellville game? And she said that they came in and they watched film, and the coach, Clay Reeves, had 71 clips for them to watch, basically mistakes from that game. And the one comment he made was, he should have made them run for every one of those.
[00:18:48] Speaker A: Wow, that'd be a lot of sprints.
[00:18:52] Speaker C: He was not happy with.
[00:18:54] Speaker E: You know what we know about the struggles Mountain home has had in football. I remember years ago they had a state tournament up there, and I didn't think much about, oh, my goodness, they play great basketball up there.
It's hard to get to, but that's a wonderful community up there. And I know the lady Bombers are going to be ready for them when they get up there.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: They have a really good student section and just a really good home fan base, and they do a good job of kind of pumping that up. And you're right, there's not a lot else to do in mountain homes.
[00:19:30] Speaker C: It'll be a big test for the Lady Bulldogs.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: Well, on the five a West Boys side, so you still got Alma Van Buren, and we talked about how.
[00:19:44] Speaker E: If.
[00:19:44] Speaker A: They had played Tuesday, it was going to be a matchup of undefeated teams in the conference. Well, the makeup date has been set, I believe, for that 30 January, and I'm not confident that either one of those teams is going to make it to the 30th still being undefeated. But regardless, both those teams are off to great starts.
On the album specifically, it's very good to see they've been down a little bit. They've struggled.
But in my mind, when the Alma Airdells are a big part of the five a West conversation, it makes basketball more fun all the way around.
[00:20:19] Speaker C: Well, and they started, I think, one senior last year, so they played a lot of these guys last year. So this has kind of been a building process, and they're certainly seeing the fruits of their labor now, especially, like I said, winning two of their first three games on the road at Harrison and at Russellville, man, those are three. That's a big accomplishment because I think the win at Harrison was their first one there since 2013.
So it's a good start, but lots of basketball left to be played.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: Hey, there are a lot of good teams who've gone up to Harrison that haven't been able to get a, um. One thing I want to hit back on, I should have mentioned earlier, but we're going to see a lot of movement this weekend in the six A West girls side. We have four teams stacked up at four and one there, and they're all playing each other well, most of them are playing each other this weekend. Springdale and harbor girls, I was going.
[00:21:23] Speaker D: To say, how would you like to be Springdale girls and have back to back games of Harbor, Northside Friday and Saturday?
That's probably the one team that's probably got one of the biggest challenges is.
[00:21:39] Speaker A: That, well, harbor girls have Springdale and Fayetteville and harbor girls have.
Those games are going to happen, and we'll know a little bit more about that side of things as well. So a lot of exciting basketball, it's going to be kind of jumbled up there together and not a lot of time to dissect it because it's a Thursday Friday Saturday kind of set up for a lot of these and adult snooze on Bentonville. They're sitting there at three and two, and they can beat some good teams as well. So we're going to take another break, and when we come back, we will go through our top five of the week.
[00:22:17] Speaker B: Stay on top of all Arkansas Razorback sports with a digital plus subscription on the Hogs Illustrated app. Get complete razorbacks coverage in one location. Your subscription gives you 20 plus issues of Hogs Illustrated magazine, the most unique and compelling coverage anywhere in the state, plus total access to all the content on wholehogsports.com, including breaking news, commentaries, analysis, features, recruiting award winning photos and premium message boards. Subscriptions start at just $17 per month. Join the HogSportsNetwork team at subscribe waco.com that's subscribe we h c o.com or call 479-684-5509 to get your front row seat to Arkansas Razorback sports. Go Hogs.
[00:23:05] Speaker A: Welcome back to the prep Rally Podcast sponsored by West Termite, Pest and lawn Graham Thomas, Rick Fires, Leland Barclay and Walter Woody, all joining you on this special Zoom edition. And, gentlemen, we're going to get into our top five of the week and we're going to start with our two guys down the river Valley giving their top five for this week.
[00:23:27] Speaker C: Well, and I'm going to start with number one, Rick Fires. He does our players of the week every week. I'm going to start with Hackett. Forward Hayden Fosters had 20 points, 17 rebounds and blocked two shots in Hackett's 59 40 win over Cedarville on Thursday.
In the game before that, in a loss to Paris, he had 19 points and 13 rebounds, and for the season he's averaging 16 points and 14 rebounds per game.
[00:23:57] Speaker D: Alma in second is Alma's Camden Curd with 16 points to help the Airdales to a 59 46 win at Russellville Friday night. Easton Boggs added 15 points and five rebounds and Israel Towns Robinson added 14 points.
[00:24:14] Speaker C: In Saturday's win, Van Buren's win over Mountain homes 77 to 61. Glavin McDonald had a season high 28 points, eight rebounds and also he had six assists in the win. He was one of five double digit scores for the pointers. Trenton Cooley had 14, Drew Braswell 13, Jackson Gazelle twelve and AG Denton had ten.
[00:24:38] Speaker D: Fourth is Allison Edwards of Mansfield that scored ten points, grabbed 15 rebounds and doled out two assists in Mansfield's 50 816 win over Johnson County west side Friday night. The Lady Tigers are still undefeated at 17 and Kinsley Ward added 20 points, had seven steals. Kaylee Ward had 13 points, six rebounds and three blocks and Harley Fuller scored eleven points and had five steals.
[00:25:03] Speaker C: Booneville's Linley Garrett hit a school record seven three pointers in the Lady Bearcats 41 32 win over Danville. She finished with 23 points and eight rebounds.
[00:25:17] Speaker A: Wow, some people are pulling boards.
Rick, you go ahead with it, man.
[00:25:22] Speaker E: All right. I love this format with these two guys. That's more entertaining. Eli and Peyton Manning right there.
[00:25:29] Speaker A: I think we need to get Walter on here, everyone, all the time.
[00:25:33] Speaker E: All right. Okay, let's see my girls.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: Player of the week.
[00:25:38] Speaker E: Lena mentioned the boys. Player of week down there, Hackett. Hey, how about. All right. We know Valley spring. They got great players every year. Macy Willis, Allstate player. They were playing Elkins the other day and they went to the bench and a young sophomore, I guess all sophomores are young, but Laramie Watkins comes off the bench as the 6th person and scores 28 points. And that includes eight three pointer. Yes, as an eight, three pointers. So you got a sophomore coming up there in a team, veteran team like them and just sparked the team. So she was easily our player of the week. So just great job for Laramie Watkins of Valley Springs.
But the joy was short lived because they got beat the next night, two nights later, pretty badly by Bergman. Bergman 55 to 38 over Valley. Bergman, my goodness, you're talking about top programs up there. James Helitska. Did I say that right as close enough. Anyway, they were 35 and six last year. They're 27 and two overall. I'm looking at our rankings in the paper this weekend.
No surprise. Bergman is number one in class three a for the girls. Lamar is number two. We're familiar with them. And then right down there, Salem, too, from a couple of years ago.
Let me see. Let's go back to fable. Like I said, I've seen fable like three or four times and just really impressed. Different when they had their blowout over Bentonville west. There are six guys that already scored in the first quarter, I think, or early in the second quarter. They jumped out 25 to seven lead and everybody contributed. So they're deep.
They just got more than one or two players. They're very deep. But a shout out to Jaden Haney, man, he had 22 points in that game, 13 came in the second quarter. So there's another guy that you all want to go out there and see on this big Saturday night special right there and just transition instead of looking back. I'm looking ahead. Saturday night, fable downtown, Fable Arkansas. There's going to be a show, Springdale harbor against Fable for the lead in the six A West Conference. You all be there.
[00:28:08] Speaker A: All right, so my top five, I'm going to start off with the six A West girls and how there's four teams at four and one, Springdale, Fort Smith, Northside, Fayetteville and Springdale harbor. And right behind those four, you got Bentonville three and two. Harbor and Springdale are going to play on Friday at Wildcat arena. Then Harbor goes to Fayetteville on know we're going to have some winners and losers on these two days, and we'll have a little better idea of what that conference is going to shape up to be like. Hey, how about those Bentonville lady Tigers, though? Arden Lewis and Cambridge Phillips combined for 38 points and a win over Springdale. They were down and had to go on a 17 to six run in the second half and came back and won that ball game.
Just a huge win for Tom Hobmeyer's crew. Hey, Springdale harbor has got a lot of weapons. So I tell you what, those Campbell twins, McKinley, and for. They're just freshmen, by the way.
[00:29:13] Speaker E: Freshmen. Oh, wow.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: They seem to be going for double digit points just about every night. And McKinley is really good. She had a big night against Rogers a few nights ago. They've also got Delaney roller and a whole other group of players that are just. Coach Kimberly Jenkins has her a good team over there. They're young, but they're dangerous. Hey, Marin Adams at Farmington.
She had 23 points and a win over Gentry, and that was a big win for Farmington.
They're about, like a gazillion and one, I think. And they've only lost that team out of Duncanville, Texas. I think they're a good ball club, and I'm ready to be able to watch them with my own eyes.
And I'm going to break away from the traditional basketball to end the top five this week. Y'all remember Paul Pouch, who used to be the head tennis coach at Bentonville High School, and he's a tennis pro up in Bella vista. He is being inducted into the Arkansas Tennis hall of Fame at the end of the.
You know, we had a story about him in the paper. It was actually written by one of our weekly papers. Good story about Paul Pouch and very deserving honor. He's kind of the tennis guru up in northwest Arkansas for so many years, and that Bentonville tennis dynasty really started under him. And he's kind of done some other things as, um.
[00:30:49] Speaker D: I guess we can add one other special. Just shout out, uh, Southside graduate Madison marsh for winning Miss America. She did not play sports. I believe she was a cheerleader her first two years at Southside, but she graduated the Air Force academy. She is a second lieutenant. She is a physics major, has a degree in physics from the air Force Academy, and she is taking classes at the Harvard School of Government piloting. And was miss Colorado before winning Miss America.
[00:31:23] Speaker A: So congrats. Yeah. And the only reason I saw that originally, Walter, was because you posted, uh. Cause I honestly was not watching the Miss America pageant, but then I saw that and I was like, oh, that's a pretty cool.
Congrats to, congrats to her, for sure. So, guys, it's been fun. Walter, when's your lunch period, man? We need to be sure and try and link this up on Wednesdays.
[00:31:53] Speaker D: I got 30 minutes around 1130 to 12:00.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: But, folks, you can listen to prep
[email protected] or you can watch it on YouTube or find it wherever you get your podcasts. And be sure and check out the river Valley report. I think these two guys had a show earlier today, and that report will be available along with prep rally. And, guys, we're going to call it for this week. And y'all be safe out there. Stay out of the ice, and we'll see you next week.
