Eureka Springs Highlanders finished first in the conference, then won the district tournament in Yellville. Last week, they took another step by winning the 2A West Regional in Danville.
The Highlanders met the host team in the first round on Wednesday. Matt Lester started the scoring with a three, but both teams got off to a slow start. Griffin Taylor had a couple of steals in the first quarter, and Garrett Cross scored five points. Eureka Springs had an early 8-2 lead, but Danville battled back and scored a late three for a 15-11 halftime lead.
The Highlanders had trailed at the half in their two games in the district tournament, and they didn’t panic when Danville extended the lead to seven. The deficit remained at five going into the last period.
Taylor had a steal to start the fourth quarter. Carter Drennon hit a three, and Lester tied the game at 25. Cross drew a technical foul near the five-minute mark, and Danville had the lead and the ball after making one of two free throws. Another Taylor steal gave Eureka Springs the lead, but the Highlanders failed to convert on some scoring opportunities. Danville recaptured the lead with just over a minute to go, but Cross drove for a tough basket to take back the lead for good. Cross missed some free throws which would have padded the lead, but Danville fouled him again with 10 seconds left and he hit both free throws for a 31-28 lead, which would become the final margin when Danville’s last attempt rimmed out at the buzzer.
Taylor had seven steals in the game.
In the semifinal against Flippin on Friday, the boys gave their coaches an easy night. The Bobcats scored first, but their lead lasted only seconds. Cross hit a three, Taylor got a steal, and Drennon knocked down a three. Flippin came into the game expecting to counter Eureka’s inside game with three-point shooting, but the Highlanders hit four treys in the first quarter. Garrett Cross nailed one at the buzzer, and Eureka Springs had a comfortable 15-4 lead. That lead grew to 19-4 before Flippin finally hit a three. Matt Lester landed a trey at the halftime buzzer for a 26-13 lead. He hit another early in the third quarter, and added a free throw for a four-point play and a 30-13 lead.
The Highlanders completely dominated the third quarter, and Taylor added insult to injury when he scored from beyond the half-court line to give his team a 42-20 lead going into the fourth quarter. On a night when everything clicked, Eureka Springs hit buzzer-beating threes at the end of the first, second, and third quarters. They cruised to a 52-38 victory.
The Highlanders had beaten Yellville-Summit three times before facing them in the Regional final Saturday night. The Panthers’ record stood at 19-7, and three of those losses came against Eureka Springs. The Highlanders got off to a slow start, and didn’t score for more than three minutes. Cross converted a three-point play, and Drennon followed in the lane for a 5-2 lead. Yellville led after a quarter, 6-5.
Eureka Springs led 13-9 at the half, but Yellville led 24-20 after a back-and-forth third period. In the fourth quarter, that lead extended to 29-20, and Lester and Cross each picked up their fourth fouls. This team usually plays a six-man rotation, so the foul trouble loomed large. With three minutes left, Jackson Cross hit a three, Drennon scored twice, and Lester made a trey. Garrett Cross hit two free throws for the final 32-31 score, although Yellville had some chances to win the game at the end.
Coach Brian Rambo said he enjoyed every minute of the last quarter, despite the white-knuckle situations. “We were down nine in a low-scoring game, and it felt like twenty,” he said. Eureka Springs had trouble finding the holes in Yellville’s matchup zone. Cross’s fourth foul came with five minutes left, and Rambo had no choice but to tell him to play carefully on defense the rest of the way. “Everything had to go perfect at that point,” he said.
The coach said he was “shocked” at Yellville’s inability to handle the press in those closing minutes.
His Highlanders enjoyed a brief visit home before taking to the road again, for the State Tournament in Carlisle. The team left Monday afternoon, to avoid a long road trip right before game time. They were scheduled to play a very good Marked Tree team at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday.