Bobcats pick up 2 victories

The Berryville Bobcats picked up a pair of 4A-1 conference victories last week, beating Prairie Grove 41-36 on the road on Tuesday, Jan. 17, before rolling to a 55-24 homecoming victory over Gentry on Friday, Jan. 20, at Bobcat Arena.

“I was proud of our kids,” Berryville coach Brent Compton said. “Gentry’s game plan was obviously to slow the tempo down, to shorten the game. And that worked for a little while. Once we got the tempo going a little bit more the way we like it, our kids played well.”

Gentry led 13-9 at the end of the first quarter, but Berryville outscored the Pioneers 22-4 in the second quarter for a 31-17 halftime lead. The Bobcats hit four three-pointers in the quarter and finished with six for the game.

“It was good to see,” Compton said. “We haven’t been shooting it real great overall. But we shot it better Friday and hopefully that’ll continue to to improve as we move forward.”

Senior guard D.J. Colbert, who volunteered to come off the bench against Gentry, had two three-pointers and a three-point play in the second quarter.

Senior Jake Wilson led the Bobcats with 26 points, while Colbert scored 16.

“We have six seniors,” Compton said. “D.J. came to me a day or two before and told me he wanted Kanon Coatney to start in his place. And the team talked about it and they all wanted to do it for Kanon. We’ve just got a really good group of kids that care about each other. That shows a lot about them.”

In the win at Prairie Grove, Wilson scored 16 points and senior Chet Hudgens added 11.

Berryville traveled to Farmington on Monday, a day ahead of schedule because of a predicted winter storm. On Friday, the Bobcats will travel to Huntsville for a game that could be critical as both teams jockey for a higher seed in the district tournament.

“It really could,” Compton said. “It’s their homecoming or colors day, whatever they call it over there. I don’t know if that’s ever happened with us and Huntsville before so maybe that’ll help motivate us even more.”