Tuesday night’s thrilling boys basketball game in White Hall began by honoring the former coach and welcoming a new one.
El Dorado beat White Hall 70-68 in the Bulldogs’ home opener, but the night was about more than a game.
Prior to tipoff, White Hall (0-4, 0-1 in 5A-South) held a moment of silence in honor of former head coach Matt Williams, who died in a car accident in April following his first and only season leading the Bulldogs.
El Dorado (5-3, 1-0) did its part by claiming the opening tipoff and intentionally taking a shot clock violation, giving the ball to the Bulldogs to start the game. New White Hall Coach Trey Lenox said it was important to honor Williams.
“A lot of these guys really had a bond with Coach Williams,” Lenox said. “For El Dorado to even take that chance and take a turnover to honor him, that just speaks to their culture and their coaching staff and their players.”
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Lenox, a former player and assistant coach at 5A-South rival Hot Springs, coached his first home game as a head coach Tuesday night. His debut with the Bulldogs came on the road at Stuttgart on Nov. 20.
He said he liked starting off with this type of game.
“It’s the energy you want to have for your first game,” Lenox said. “My nose even started bleeding. It was very high intensity, and I appreciate every fan that came out. Hopefully, that support continues throughout the season, but this is gonna be a great place to be for a couple years. I love it here. I love the fan base. I love the community.”
This special night was marked with a competitive conference opener which contained 15 lead changes. The Bulldogs began the game on a 6-0 run and went on to lead 8-3 before El Dorado got going.
White Hall led 15-14 after the first quarter, but the Wildcats took a 31-29 lead into halftime. The Bulldogs went on to lead 47-46 with 1:20 left in the third but did not score again until the fourth. El Dorado drew multiple fouls and shot 5 of 7 from the free throw line during that final 1:20 of the period, with a late layup making it 53-47 entering the fourth.
The Wildcats led the rest of the way despite White Hall’s best efforts. Junior guard Tristen Dunlap scored the Bulldogs’ final eight points. He made layups to cut the deficit to two twice in the final 30 seconds, but El Dorado let time expire without inbounding the ball after the second one to seal its road win.
Lenox said any coach wants to see his team fight to the end the way the Bulldogs did.
“It’s always going to be something to fix, but as long as you know your team got fight, you know you’re always going to have a chance,” Lenox said. “Like I said, credit to El Dorado, because they made us play a hard-fought game. It’s just a lot of little things that we gotta go back to the drawing board and fix, but we know effort isn’t one of those things.”
White Hall junior guard Marcus Murry Jr. led the Bulldogs with 24 points. Junior forward Korey Hope added 15, and Dunlap finished with 14.
GIRLS: White Hall 41, El Dorado 40
The White Hall girls remained undefeated by slipping past El Dorado in a game which often felt more like a free throw shooting contest.
Each team attempted 28 free throws, with White Hall (5-0, 1-0 in 5A-South) making 10 and El Dorado making 16. Despite issues at the line, the Lady Bulldogs did enough defensively in the third quarter to pull ahead.
El Dorado (3-7, 0-1) led 27-26 at halftime then made the first shot of the second half, but the Lady Wildcats didn’t score from the field again until the fourth quarter. White Hall used a 6-0 run to take the lead for good and outscored El Dorado 10-4 in the third.
The Lady Bulldogs had chances to put the game away, but missed free throws kept it close. El Dorado made a pair of free throws with 1.3 seconds left but couldn’t get the ball back as time expired.
Those late freebies were El Dorado’s only points in the final 2:59 of the game. White Hall coach Dustin Powell said his senior-led team showed the type of effort needed to win a close game.
“Most of them been starting for four years, so they’re kind of used to everything,” Powell said. “They wanted to win this game. They want to go to state, and they’ll do whatever it takes to get there.”
White Hall senior Jelayla Stith led the Lady Bulldogs with 10 points. El Dorado senior Christian Dade led all scorers with 13.
