BOYS: Greene County Tech 39, North Pulaski 34 (Capsule, Stats, Story)

[BarclayAlmanac]

CLASS 5A STATE CHAMPIONSHIP
BOYS
Saturday, March 14, 12:45 p.m.
Summit Arena, Hot Springs
NORTH PULASKI VERSUS GREENE COUNTY TECH
NORTH PULASKI FALCONS
Head coach: Raymond Cooper
Record: 25-6
State championships: none
Road to the Summit: North Pulaski defeated Helena-West Helena Central (62-58), Central Arkansas Christian (64-63) and Morrilton (73-56) in the state tournament .
Fearless facts: North Pulaski is the only conference champion to make it out of the first three rounds of the state tournament. The Falcons shared the 5A-Southeast regular season crown with Little Rock McClellan after losing the regular season finale to McClellan. In the state tournament, North Pulaski has not faced a No. 1 seed. The Falcons lost to Harrison in the 1984 Class 3A state championship game, 59-57 in overtime at Harrison.
GREENE COUNTY TECH EAGLES
Head coach: Scott Bowlin
Record: 25-6
State championships: (1) 2007
Road to the Summit: The Eagles finished second in the 5A-East and downed Sylvan Hills (64-57), Camden Fairview (59-42) and Siloam Springs (46-35) in the state tournament.
Fearless Facts: In a bizarre turn of games, Greene County Tech faced two fourth-seeded teams and a third-seed in the state tournament at Alma. In the semifinals, Tech defeated Siloam Springs, which beat Tech in the state championship game last season. Tech is appearing in its third straight state championship game, winning it all in 2007 with a 55-35 win over Arkadelphia. Zach Mitchell, Trase Davis, Caleb Hartwig and Wes Livingston all started on last year's state runner-up team.

[AB™]

I saw North Pulaski and GCT play twice this past week in the tournament.  IMO, GCT is the most complete team in the state.  They don't have on outstanding standout player like NP does in Cooper, but GCT does have four or five very good players and pretty deep bench.  I'm still trying to figure out how GCT lost 3 games in conference play but obviously they are a whole other team right now.  They play very good defense and execute at a high level on the offensive end.

NP has some good pieces around Cooper.  The one that caught my eye the most was #33.  Not sure of the name, but he is 6'2"-6'3" a physical player who can score quite well in the paint, and he is pretty good getting to the rim off the dribble.  NP has a good, athletic team, that likes to press and is at their best forcing turnovers and scoring in transition.  If they can get GCT to play up at their pace then NP can win this game.  NP, like GCT, is very well coached, and plays with discipline and under control despite playing up tempo. 

I not only feel these are truly the two best teams in the state, but this past week in the tournament, these were the two teams I saw playing the hardest.  They seemed to grasp at the fact that if you lose you go home the best and as a result will play for a state title.  They are two perrenial powers in this classification and it should be a good one.

I'll go with GCT by 6.

[BarclayAlmanac]

Greene County Tech was satisfied to let North Pulaski take jump shot after jump shot, and miss jump shot after jump shot.

The Eagles took advantage of North Pulaski's many misses, winning their second state title in three years with a 39-34 win on Saturday for the Class 5A boys state championship.

"I've never seen a jump-shooting team win the state championship," said Greene County Tech head coach Scott Bowlin, who has taken his team to the finals three years in a row. "In a big arena, we're going to let you shoot from outside. We're going to attack the glass."

North Pulaski made a measly two field goals in 21 first-half attempts, and it didn't get much better. The Falcons finished with just 11 buckets in 57 tries for 19 percent.

"We missed layups, free throws, 3-pointers," said North Pulaski head coach Raymond Cooper. "It's frustrating. We got shots from the guys we wanted to shoot. The shots just didn't fall."

Tech led 8-4 after just a quarter and just 15-9 at the half.

"Both teams didn't play good, offensively," Bowlin said. "Both teams played good defense."

North Pulaski stayed close on the strength of a 20-7 advantage in offensive rebounds, and forcing Tech into 18 turnovers for the game. The Falcons trailed just 26-23 after three quarters, and were within 29-27 on DaQuan Bryant's bucket inside with 3:47 left.

Tech squelched the threat with a 5-0 run.

Wes Livingston led Greene County Tech with 13 points and nine rebounds.

Greene County Tech finished 26-6. North Pulaski finished 25-7.

Complete statistics provided by the Henderson State University Sports Information Department may be viewed at: http://fac.hsu.edu/mitchet/livestats/aaa/bk/index.html.



 

[Quite Frankly]

GCT finishes 26-6
North Pulaski finishes 25-7

                            1st 2nd 3rd 4th Total
Greene County Tech  8 7 11 13 39
North Pulaski              4 5 14 11 34

Greene County Tech
Player   FG 3FG FT Reb  A  F Pts
Livingston, Weston * 4-8 0-0 5-10 9 0 2 13
Hartwig, Caleb * 3-7 0-0 2-2 2 1 4 8
George, Zachary  * 0-0 0-0 0-0 2 1 1 0
Davis, Trase * 3-6 1-2 3-4 4 1 0 10
Mitchell, Zachery * 1-4 1-2 1-5 6 1 3 4
Halbrook, Chase  2-4 0-0 0-2 4 1 4 4
Taylor, Matt   0-0 0-0 0-0 1 1 0 0
Hawes, Kevin   0-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0

North Pulaski
Player   FG 3FG FT Reb  A  F Pts
Cooper, Aaron * 0-17 0-10 3-5 3 0 3 3
Green, Troy * 0-3 0-0 0-0 5 1 2 0
Ware, Kyron * 7-13 3-6 2-2 2 0 2 19
Coulson, Brian * 0-1 0-0 1-4 3 0 2 1
Bryant, DaQuan  * 4-13 0-0 2-4 15 0 4 10
Agee, Joseph   0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Heuszel, Christian   0-3 0-0 0-0 2 2 2 0
Barron, Shyheim   0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0
Blair, Jerald  0-7 0-3 1-4 4 1 2 1
Donley, Carlos   0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0

Attendance 4,110

Fearless Friday congratulates Greene County Tech

[shaniqua]

Nice call, AB!  But I'll bet you couldn't have predicted NP's shooting woes, could you?  What did they shoot from the field, like 4%??  At one point they had hit 2 of their first 30 shots.  Talk about ugly! 

[AB™]

I didn't get to go even though I really wanted to. I thought if GCT was going to control the tempo the game could be in the 40s or 50s. I didn't expect it to be that low though.

[shaniqua]

NP was getting lots of open shots, even at close range.  They just couldn't shoot!

[theanswer34]

i disagree, np didnt have a lot of open looks. gct contested most of their shots, ask aaron cooper.

[bballfan117]

Yes I wasnt there but heard that they had great defense on Cooper and the only want that did much scoring was 13 and 33... is any of the seniors for Tech going to play on the next level?... I know Wes will be but how about any others

[npfalconfan]

First of all gct didnt contest all Aaron shots. Aaron injured his back during shoot around the day before he had pulled muscle in his back. If he was even 75% he would have killed them. Hes to quick for them they know it... The ball just didnt falll for us. NP forced gct into turnovers after turnovers 18 -10 was the turnover margin 9-0 steals, off.rebounds 20-7 they hit 5 more shots then Np did thats all. Thats what made the game for them  But great game gct ..... Well be back next year.

[theanswer34]

u must be kin to coach cooper, making all the excuses. the kid that guarded cooper had a bad back all season and dr. said he shouldnt even play this yr it was so bad, so he still would have shut him down. man up and quit making excuses. we gave siloam all the credit last yr, just admit u got shut down

[Magnum]

First of all gct didnt contest all Aaron shots. Aaron injured his back during shoot around the day before he had pulled muscle in his back. If he was even 75% he would have killed them. Hes to quick for them they know it... The ball just didnt falll for us. NP forced gct into turnovers after turnovers 18 -10 was the turnover margin 9-0 steals, off.rebounds 20-7 they hit 5 more shots then Np did thats all. Thats what made the game for them  But great game gct ..... Well be back next year.

No one likes a sore loser

[Downnotout]

First of all gct didnt contest all Aaron shots. Aaron injured his back during shoot around the day before he had pulled muscle in his back. If he was even 75% he would have killed them. Hes to quick for them they know it... The ball just didnt falll for us. NP forced gct into turnovers after turnovers 18 -10 was the turnover margin 9-0 steals, off.rebounds 20-7 they hit 5 more shots then Np did thats all. Thats what made the game for them  But great game gct ..... Well be back next year.

NP did everything but win. Have fun with you should have and could have. We are getting sized for rings!

[AB™]

Downnotout, are you a player?

[Johnrcanz]

NpFalcon,

You want some cheese with that WHINE?  What an excuse maker, but thats expected form NP, never own up to anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[02091987]

North Pulaski
Player   FG 3FG FT Reb  A  F Pts
Cooper, Aaron * 0-17 0-10 3-5 3 0 3 3

I didn't realize he was that off in that game!!!  That probably hasn't every happened to him, and he just went cold in the one game that counted the most!  I feel bad for him!

[Downnotout]

Downnotout, are you a player?

I use the term "we" loosly