In a matchup between two unbeaten teams in 6A/5A-2 blended conference play, the Mountain Home Bombers emerged with a 3-0 league mark after holding off the Morrilton Devil Dogs, 42-35, Friday night at The Hangar.
The Bombers (8-9, 3-0) answered a third-quarter surge by Morrilton (14-6, 3-1) by slowing the game down and holding the Devil Dogs to only five points in the fourth.
“It wasn’t very clean,” Mountain Home head coach Josh Fulcher said, “and we didn’t make the free throws, but to us, it was beautiful basketball. We want to grind and hold teams to our pace. We held them to 35 points, and we like to keep teams in the 40s if we can. We need to eliminate the turnovers and make our free throws, though.”
Mountain Home was only 3 of 8 from the foul line in the fourth, and two of those misses were the front end of one-and-one tries.
Both teams went without scoring for the first 4:48 of the fourth quarter, but 6-foot-9 Bomber post David Wehmeyer gave the hosts a 37-30 advantage with 3:12 remaining. The senior led the Bombers with 16 points, 11 rebounds and seven blocked shots on the night.
“Those growing pains are still there, but they are less and less,” Fulcher said. “We just beat a really good Morrilton team, and we didn’t play our best. I said two weeks ago, our best basketball is ahead of us.”
Morrilton’s Jansen Bell drained a 3-pointer to bring the visitors within 38-35 with 1:01 remaining, which was followed by Mountain Home’s Hunter Beshears hitting 1 of 2 free throws.
The knockout blow came when the Bombers beat the Devil Dogs’ full-court pressure with a long pass to Wehmeyer for a layup and a 41-35 lead with :33 remaining.
Mountain Home’s Garrett Dietsche and Luke Jackson both came off the bench as they continue to work their way back from injuries, but Friday night the Bombers were without injured forward Luke Kruse. Fulcher stressed the importance of other players getting playing time early in the season, due to others being injured.
“When you’re without one of your main guys like Kruse, two months ago, that would have buried us,” Fulcher said. “It’s also helped that Garrett is getting some minutes. Bayler (Crecelius) stepped in and was big for us tonight. Our curse is also our blessing. Bayler had to play a ton of minutes tonight, and if these guys wouldn’t have been injured early in the year, he wouldn’t have been ready.”
Mountain Home took a 13-8 lead on a Luke Dibble 3-pointer to end the first quarter, and Wehmeyer scored to push the lead to seven to open the second.
After back-to-back buckets by Morrilton, the Bombers received a spark from Jackson, who came off the bench for his first minutes of the season after recovering from a knee injury. The junior guard buried a deep 3-pointer to push the lead to 18-12.
The Devil Dogs answered with six straight and tied the score on a pair of free throws by Donald Jones with 4:20 left in the half. Beshears stepped up for Mountain Home, scoring five straight for another five-point lead. The Bombers would take a 25-20 lead into halftime.
The Devil Dogs scored consecutive baskets off Mountain Home turnovers to begin the second half, and Jones began to get to the basket at will. The 6-2 senior scored eight in the third quarter, and he gave the Dogs the lead back at 28-27 at the 3:54 mark.
But Wehmeyer converted an old-fashioned 3-point play to put the Bombers back on top at 32-30, and Talyn Benton drained a 3 to end the quarter for a five-point margin.
DEVIL DOGS (14-6, 3-1)
Jones 18, Wright 6, Bell 5, Dillard 4, Franklin 2.
BOMBERS (8-9, 3-0)
Wehmeyer 16, Peters 9, Beshears 6, Benton 3, Dibble 3, Jackson 3, Crecelius 2.
MORRILTON 8 12 10 5 — 35
MTN. HOME 13 12 10 7 — 42