Bobcats clamp down on defense to win Holiday Hoops crown

Defense, the old saying goes, wins championships. That might not be an absolute, but it certainly held true for the Berryville Bobcats in last week’s annual CS Bank Holiday Hoops tournament.

The Bobcats held defending champion Bauxite to 16 points in the second half and beat the Miners 54-42 in the championship game on Wednesday, Dec. 31, at Bobcat Arena. Berryville won its home-tournament for the first time since 2021.

“Winning our tournament is a big deal and we did what we had to do to get a win,” longtime Berryville coach Brent Compton said. “Our kids played just as hard as you can play. … They were going to do whatever they had to do to win. You could see the determination on their faces.”

Berryville, which erased a ninepoint second-quarter deficit with a 12-4 run to finish the first half, broke the game open with a 12-2 stretch late in the third quarter and early in the fourth. That run pushed the Bobcats from a 32-31 deficit to a 43-34 lead.

Senior Peyton Smith, who scored 55 points in three tournament games, put the Bobcats ahead for good when he sank two free throws for a 33-32 lead with 4:29 remaining in the third quarter.

Smith’s pull-up jumper with 5:06 left in the game gave Berryville a 45-36 lead and was followed less than a minute later by a huge three-pointer by senior reserve Josh Ruiz that made it 48-36.

“He got hurt over Lincoln and he kind of has taken a little while to get back in the groove,” Compton said. “But we need him to be that guy that comes in and makes shots.” Meanwhile, Bauxite’s leading scorer, Carter Ballard, was held to four points in the second half after scoring nine in the first quarter and 13 in the first half.

Berryville junior CT Hicks drew the defensive assignment on Ballard, and Compton said the Bobcats made some adjustments in how they defended against the Miners’ multiple ball screens.

“We did two or three different things to try to adjust and defend their ball screen and I think that was the biggest thing was just continuously trying to adjust how we defended their ball screens,” Compton said. “They got us a few times, but for the most part the kids did a nice job. And they were hurting us on the boards early. After that first quarter, we shored up the offensive rebounds and kept them off the glass and that was a big part of it as well.”

Smith finished with 19 points to lead all scorers while junior Hudson Norris added 11 and Hicks scored 10.

Smith scored 10 points in the first half to help the Bobcats keep it close.

“He kept us in it,” Compton said. “He can create his own shot and it just seemed like when we needed one, he came up big every time.”

The Bobcats reached the championship game by defeating Monticello 54-44 in a semifinal game on Tuesday, Dec. 30, opening the fourth quarter with an 11-0 run to take control. Smith had 20 in that victory while junior Carson Mc-Mellon added 14. McMellon made four three-pointers, including the first basket of the fourth quarter to give the Bobcats the lead for good at 37-35.

The Bobcats’ closest game of the tournament was a 57-51 first-round win over Cassville on Monday, Dec. 29. Smith scored 10 of his 16 points in the third quarter as Berryville outscored Cassville 23-10 to turn a two-point halftime deficit into an 11-point lead. Senior Noah Houghton added 12 points for the Bobcats.

Berryville, which had lost four consecutive games — including an 0-2 start in the 4A-1 — before Holiday Hoops, hopes to have picked up some momentum as it returns to conference play.

“Hopefully, we can use that,” Compton said.

The Bobcats will travel to Gravette on Tuesday, Jan. 6, before hosting Green Forest on Friday, Jan. 9, at Bobcat Arena.