Lady Bobcats refuse to quit

If there has been one constant in the Berryville Lady Bobcats’ performance over the past several seasons under longtime coach Daniel Cornelison, it has been unrelenting effort for 32 minutes every time the Lady Bobcats step on the floor.

That relentless effort was on full display at last week’s 4A-1 regional tournament at Dardanelle High School, and it propelled the Lady Bobcats to the Class 4A state tournament.

“I’ll tell you what, we had a really great week last week,” Cornelison said Monday, March 3. “They played their little tails off.”

Berryville clinched its spot in the state tournament with a 50-37 victory over Waldron in a first-round regional game on Thursday, Feb. 27, outscoring Waldron 17-4 in the fourth quarter to keep its season alive. Twenty- four hours later, the Lady Bobcats overcame a 10-point deficit in the final four minutes to stun conference rival Pea Ridge 50-47 and advance to the regional championship game.

Berryville outscored Waldron and Pea Ridge by a combined 42-14 in the fourth quarter.

Exhausted after two hard-fought games, Berryville lost to Shiloh Christian 52-23 in the regional championship game on Saturday, March 1.

Berryville (25-9) will face Arkadelphia (20-8) in the first round of the state tournament at 1 p.m. Thursday, March 6, at Magnolia High School. The Lady Badgers are the No. 3 seed from the 4A-4 region.

Fittingly, it was Berryville’s three seniors who set the tone in the victory over Waldron that clinched the state tournament berth for the Lady Bobcats.

Seniors Sophie Bartos, Kynadee Hopper and Taelor Tomlinson scored nine of Berryville’s 17 fourth-quarter points but more importantly made big plays over all the court defensively and with their rebounding and passing. Bartos played a key role off the bench for a Berryville team that was missing junior point guard Paige Thurman, out for the remainder of the season with a knee injury.

“Those three played their tails off in that fourth quarter,” Cornelison said. “It was fun to see that. You could just tell that they weren’t ready to go home yet, and they played like it. It was a huge, huge, huge moment. Sophie played such a big role in that fourth quarter. Big rebounds and all the little things that we had to do. Obviously, Kynadee and Taelor, too, hitting big shots. I was really proud of those seniors for how they stepped up in that fourth quarter, for sure.”

Hopper put Berryville ahead for good when she scored in the lane for a 35-33 lead with 7:32 remaining in the fourth quarter. Less than 20 seconds later, she came up with a steal and passed to Tomlinson for a layup and a four-point lead. Thirty-four seconds later, Tomlinson passed to junior Hailey Howerton, who was fouled and made the second of two free throws to push Berryville’s lead to 38-33 at the 6:39 mark. Junior Kaylyn Smith dropped in a three-pointer from the right corner with 5:07 left. Hopper came up with a quick steal and drove for a layup, with the ball spinning in the net before finally dropping through to make it 43-35 with 4:49 remaining. After a Waldron basket, Bartos made the second of two free throws at the 4:18 mark. A layup by Tomlinson and four free throws from Howerton closed out the Berryville victory.

Howerton led Berryville with 16 points while Smith added 11 and junior Tessa Johnson scored 10.

In the regional semifinal against Pea Ridge, which had beaten the Lady Bobcats twice during the regular season, Berryville struggled to make shots for most of the game and trailed 45-35 with 2:44 remaining. From there, however, the Lady Bobcats outscored Pea Ridge 15-2.

“It was probably one of the wildest comebacks of my career as a head coach,” Cornelison said. “Down 10 with three minutes left. You’re not going to win very many of those.”

Berryville made three three-pointers in its game-winning rally, starting with Tomlinson’s shot from the left corner that made it 45-38 with 2:22 left. A Johnson three-pointer and another from Tomlinson accounted for Berryville’s next six points before the Lady Bobcats scored their final six points on a basket by Smith and four free throws — three by Johnson and one by Bartos.

“We just played our little tails off, and the shots started to fall,” Cornelison said. “That’s what I told them at half: ‘Girls, we’re just going to keep shooting them. The law of averages says some of them are going to go in and if they go in at the right time and we keep playing hard, you never know what could happen.’ And to their credit, they didn’t get down. They continued to play hard and then the shots started to fall and Pea Ridge, in my opinion, panicked a little bit and we took advantage of it.”

Smith and Tomlinson scored 13 points apiece to lead Berryville, while Johnson added 12.

The Lady Bobcats are in the state tournament for the first time since 2019, when they reached the Class 4A state championship game before losing to Batesville. Cornelison said Berryville has drawn a difficult firstround assignment in Arkadelphia.

“They’re big and long and athletic and they can play basketball on top of it,” Cornelison said of the Lady Badgers. “We’re going to go play hard and we’re going to see what happens.”