Big third quarter carries Airedales by White Hall
By Kevin Taylor
Alma Schools
SEARCY - The bright lights of the first round of the 5A state tournament didn’t seem to bother Israel Towns-Robinson. It didn’t seem to affect Miles Kendrick, either.
Alma stepped onto the big stage for the first time since 2019 and looked the part of a veteran basketball team.
Towns-Robinson scored 17 points and pulled down 14 rebounds to pace the Airedales to a 60-51 win over a White Hall team that had had its way with the Airedales last June.
But things are far different eight months later.
“We’re not the same team,” coach Dominic Lincoln said.
“I don’t think we had a lot of pressure on us,” Towns-Robinson said. “We knew what we had to do and we rose to the moment.”
Towns-Robinson’s offensive rebound and put-back extended Alma’s lead to 53-37 early in the fourth quarter. Even though the Bulldogs mounted a 10-1 run, the deficit proved too much for White Hall to overcome.
Alma (21-9) will meet the winner of the Marion-Parkview game in the quarterfinals. Tuesday’s victory was the Airedales’ first post-season basketball win since March 8, 2015.
Kendrick hit a pair of early 3-pointers and admitted said making key adjustments to White Hall’s Jai-Chaunn Hayes proved to be a difference-maker.
“Once you hit a three it just kind of opens up the game a little,” Kendrick said. “Jai-Chaunn, he was making everything early, but once we went to that 1-3-1 and shaded him, he had two points in the second half, and that’s how we got the win.”
Alma ran out to a 13-4 lead at the start of Tuesday’s game, but White Hall (15-16) rallied to overtake the Airedales 27-25 midway through the second quarter.
Alma ended the half with a 10-2, and started strong in the third quarter to secure the team’s 21st victory, the most in a single season since the 2014-15 season.