Gravette escapes Dardanelle, beats Waldron, to play today

Mark Gathright of Dardanelle High School attempted to block a shot by Gravette High School's Terence Pierce in play against Ozark High School in Ozark on Feb. 22. The Lions of Gravette beat the Dardanelle Lizards in overtime, 62-61.
Mark Gathright of Dardanelle High School attempted to block a shot by Gravette High School's Terence Pierce in play against Ozark High School in Ozark on Feb. 22. The Lions of Gravette beat the Dardanelle Lizards in overtime, 62-61.

— Terence Pierce’s demeanor never changed, even as he struggled shooting the ball early in the game.

But when the game was on the line and Gravette needed a 3-pointer to keep its season alive, Pierce delivered.

The sophomore guard’s clutch 3-pointer with 15 seconds left in regulation tied the game at 50-50, and his six points in overtime - both on 3-point shots - lifted the Lions to a 62-61 win over Dardanelle in the first round of the 4A-North Regional Tournament on Wednesday.

“That was huge,” Gravette boys basketball coach Dustin Peters said. “If it doesn’t go in, we’re beat.”

“The good thing about Terence, he doesn’t have a conscious. He can miss 20and that next one he thinks is going in.”

Early on, little went right for the Lions (21-8), who got into foul trouble, didn’t rebound, got beat off the dribble and struggled from the field. That all contributed to a 12-point lead for Dardanelle with 7 minutes, 11 seconds left in the third quarter when Alec Pyburn, who led the Sand Lizards with 18 points, scored on a spin move in the lane for a 35-23 lead.

Gravette began to click offensively midway through the third quarter as Pierce, who scored a game-high 29 points, drove the lane for a short jumper.That started a 13-0 Lions run that turned the game around.

“I knew we just had to start playing eventually,” Peters said. “We’re mentally tough. It’s not the first time that this has happened. We’ve done it a lot. I think we play better at times when we’re behind, when there’s a sense of urgency.”

That 13-0 surge set the stage for a dramatic fourth quarter that saw the leadchange hands four times. Dardanelle (16-13) fell behind as much as 46-41 when Pierce hit a pair of free throws, but rallied to take the lead at 50-47 with 30.2 left on Trent Latham’s two free throws.

Pierce found an open look from the right perimeter with 15.2 left to tie the score at 50-50 and Dardanelle’s Will Lawarence missed a shot at the buzzer, sending the game into overtime.

Dardanelle led twice in overtime and tied the score at 56-56 on Lawarence’s two free throws with 1:47 left. But Gravette scored the next five points to take a 61-56 lead on a pair of free throws by Matt VanOtterloo that clinched the program’s first state tournament berth since 2005.

Dardanelle assistant coach Jared White said the Sand Lizards stopped doing the things that helped them get the big lead.

“We kind of went through a lull,” White said. “We stopped moving without the basketball, we didn’t cut as hard. All those things we talk about every day in practice. We had about a four-minute stretch where they made a run and weren’t able to get to the freethrow line or anything to help ourselves.”

Gravette had a day off and returned Friday to play in the semifinals.

Berryville 53, Gravette 52

Clayton Alexander drilled a late 3-pointer to lead Berryville to the regional finals.

Trailing 52-50, Alexander, who was Gravette’s quarterback during the football season before transferring to Berryville, drained a 3-pointer from the left perimeter to give the Bobcats the lead. Gravette’s Terence Pierce had a 3-point attempt rim-out at the buzzer.

Alexander led the Bobcats (20-9) with 15 points. Donnie Hoppe added 13 and Austin Carr 12.

Pierce scored 20 for Gravette (21-9) and Carson Pollreis added 13.

Sports, Pages 9 on 02/29/2012