The Sylvan Hills Bears basketball teams will take on the Beebe Badgers tonight night at home. The girls game starts at 6 p.m. while the boys game starts at 7 p.m. Tickets will be sold at the door for $5 dollars. The girls are coming off an impressive win last week versus Maumelle, after having lost some close battles the weeks before. The boys are coming off a close loss to the Hornets after having tied the game in the final minute, losing by four in the end.
The girls’ team is fighting for the 4th spot in the conference rankings. If they can qualify, then they will secure a spot in the conference tournament. As a team, the girls are playing hard. The girls now need to have confidence in their team. Defense is their strength. Senior Drew Lattimore said, “Our offense will spark off of our defense. If we continue to play good defense, we’ll get confidence, and that will spark our offense.”
Coach Stricklin had this to say on what it will take for her girls to win tonight, “We just have to play aggressive on defense and push the ball in transition.” She also said they need to be disciplined. Coach Stricklin feels confident in her girls for this game stating, “It feels good coming off a win.” The Lady Bears look forward to starting a win streak of their own now.
Speaking of win streaks, this past Friday marked the Bears homecoming. The boy Bears came into the game on an 8 game win streak. They had their head on their shoulders trying to get the number 2 seed. The Bears have been playing great basketball so far. They have been working hard and effective all season to get to this moment. It’s all or nothing now. They recently beat Catholic, which was a very entertaining game with a close ending.
Senior PJ Davis had this to say about the upcoming game vs Maumelle, “We are a great, dominant team when we all do our jobs. We are the best team in our conference hands down.” The boy bears are in third place in their conference at the moment. They will need to overtake the top two teams: Little Rock Christian and Maumelle if they are truly going to be able to say they are the best team in their conference.
The last time the Bears played Maumelle, the Hornets beat them 76 to 50. So this past Friday’s four point defeat shows the improvements the Bears have made. The Bears have made major improvements on defense which sparked so many of their wins during the streak. Unfortunately this time the Hornets were tough themselves. The Bears had great, hard play. The shots simply didn’t fall at the end. They will look to get back into the win column tonight against Beebe.
Sophomore JJ Wise said, “We are some of the best shooters in our conference, even with us being a young team. I feel as if no one can mess with this team when we are firing on all cylinders.”
The Bears started off in a large deficit trailing Maumelle 15-30 early. They then turned it on and played solid defense throughout to give themselves a chance in the end. Tonight, the Bears will look for a better start in hopes to secure a winning finish.
Key to victory
Coach Hill had this to say about what the key to victory would be. “[We] have to be good in translation and keep the tempo, hit [our] shots and stay focused.”
