Chicks avenge early season loss to Warriors

Chickasaws 61,

Westside Warriors 41

BLYTHEVILLE— The Blytheville Chickasaws avenged their five-point Jan. 10 loss to the Westside Warriors Tuesday night, where their 61-41 victory propelled them to second place in the 4A-3 conference standings.

“That was early, and we are a lot better now than we were back then,” Chicks head coach McKenzie Pierce said. “On that night, they shot 35 free throws to our 18 or 19, and some of that was on us by playing bad defense. We did a much better job of that, and we didn’t give them too many easy ones tonight they may have had two or three free looks. So we did a good job of not giving up anything easy.”

Both teams got off to a sloppy start Tuesday night as the Chicks (16-8, 4-2) led 12-6 after the first quarter.

Westside (13-5, 3-2) outscored the Chicks in the second quarter, but the aggressive play of senior forward Frantavious Robinson, from several steals on the defensive side to offensive rebounds leading to multiple Chickasaws buckets, allowed BHS to lead 22-17 at the half.

“He’s a scrapper, man,” said Pierce. “When he’s revved up and does that, he creates some energy plays. Some turnovers. Some 50/50 plays that he helped go our way… He was really the spark that helped us go.”

Blytheville widened their five-point lead in the third quarter to lead 41-34 heading into the final frame.

The fourth quarter, however, was all Blytheville as they outscored the Warriors 20-7.

Junior big man Micah Dawkins led the Chicks offensively with 20 points. Dawkins’s classmate Johmir Guyton chipped in 16 points, and Robinson had a double-double with over 10 rebounds and 14 points.

Blytheville hosted the Brookland Bearcats Friday night. Scores and stats will be available after the game.

The Bearcats (14-10, 6-0) currently hold the top spot in the 4A-3 conference.

Pierce added the Chicks can’t afford to lose many down the stretch to remain in the top two seeds for a bye during the district tournament.

As of Jan. 30, the 4A-3 seeding is Brookland, Blytheville, Westside, Highland, Gosnell, and Pocahontas.