Two Jefferson County rivals got together Tuesday night in White Hall, and it didn’t take Pine Bluff High School long to pull away.
The Zebra basketball team never trailed in a 71-50 road win.
Pine Bluff (17-5, 10-2 in 5A-South) played much of the game without star Courtney Crutchfield, but it didn’t matter as three other Zebras scored in double figures. Braylen Hall finished with 19 points after making five 3-pointers. Austyn Dendy added 17 points, and former Bulldog Randy Emerson Jr. scored 16. Crutchfield scored 9 points despite only playing the first quarter.
Hall and Dendy hadn’t been consistently scoring at this level this season, so Pine Bluff coach Billy Dixon said their stepping up was a big help.
“Good to see Hall shoot the ball the way he did tonight,” Dixon said. “He’s been needing that. That helped a lot. Emerson has been consistently scoring the ball for us. I think he’s been in double digits almost every game… I thought Austyn stepped up tonight and helped us out in terms of scoring.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
White Hall (10-14, 5-6) got 16 points from Jai’Chaunn Hayes, 14 from Carl Walker and 13 from Jacoby Edwards.
Crutchfield scored the game’s first 5 points. Pine Bluff went on to lead 9-2 before White Hall cut it to 9-5. The Zebras then went on a 10-0 run which included two 3-pointers from Hall to put some distance between themselves and the Bulldogs.
Hall said Pine Bluff used defense to build its lead.
“We always preaching defense,” Hall said. “Help the helper. So, if he get blew by, he got help. It’s just a help-man defense.”
Pine Bluff led 23-11 after the first quarter, then began the second on a 9-2 run. The Zebras extended their lead to 40-20 late in the half. Hayes hit a 3-pointer in the final minute for White Hall, but Hall answered on the Zebras’ next possession, giving Pine Bluff a 43-23 halftime lead.
After Emerson opened the second half with a 3-pointer, White Hall tried to fight back with a 6-0 run. Dendy ended it by scoring the next 5 points. This was a common theme as the Zebras always found an answer to anything the Bulldogs did to fight back. The Zebras led by as much as 69-43 in the fourth quarter.
The Zebras have won their past five games by an average of 27.8 points as they prepare for a road trip to conference leader Benton, who won 66-57 earlier this season in Pine Bluff.
Dixon said Benton came and took the game to the Zebras last time, so Pine Bluff must do the same in the rematch.
“I think these guys are going to respond, and we’re going to come out, and we’ll play a good game,” Dixon said. “What we’re doing now is that our mentality is postseason play-type mentality. So, that’s why you’re seeing the stuff that you’re seeing.”
GIRLS
White Hall 52, Pine Bluff 17
The White Hall girls never trailed in a complete home win against Pine Bluff on Tuesday.
Kenedi Bowman, a sophomore, led White Hall (12-12, 4-7 in 5A-South) with 17 points, followed by sophomore Kynnedi Barnett with 14.
Junior O’Miyah Bullard led the Fillies (2-16, 1-11) with 6 points.
The Lady Bulldogs played stifling defense. Not only did they hold Pine Bluff to single digits in the first half, but they forced turnovers and scored in transition.
White Hall coach Dustin Powell said everyone played with maximum effort.
“They shadowed the ball better,” Powell said. “We’re a trapping team. We score out of our defense, so when we’re able to cause deflections and somebody else runs through the pass that got deflected, that’s when we’re at our best.”
White Hall took an early 4-0 lead, then went on to lead 7-2. After several missed free throws in the middle of the first quarter, Barnett woke the Lady Bulldogs up with a 3-pointer, starting an 11-2 run which gave White Hall an 18-4 lead at the end of the first.
The Fillies scored the first 3 points of the second quarter but didn’t score again before halftime. White Hall forced several quick turnovers, leading to transition buckets. A buzzer-beating layup by Ty’Nivia Jordan gave White Hall a 33-7 halftime lead.
White Hall went on to lead 50-14 after the third, triggering a running clock for the fourth quarter. Both teams got their reserves playing time in the final minutes.
Jelayla Stith of White Hall fires a shot in front of Andryiah Beverly of Pine Bluff in the fourth quarter Tuesday at Bert Honey Gymnasium. (Pine Bluff Commercial/I.C. Murrell)