THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
El Dorado High School Athletics

El Dorado’s varsity boys never trailed Friday, blasting DeQueen 83-41 in a mercy-rule victory at Wildcat Arena. In varsity girls, the Lady Wildcats let a fourth-quarter lead slip away and fell short 46-43. Joderrio Ramey pumped in 25 points for the Wildcats, who were never seriously threatened after scoring the first seven points of the game. El Dorado led 18-9 after one quarter and 20-9 after Keshun Greene’s dunk to start the second. Greene had a string of eight straight points, with two dunks, one off an alley-oop from B.J. Johnson. The Wildcats were up 28-18 before going on a 17-2 run to close out the final 3:15 of the half. Bishop Foster’s 3-pointer ignited the run as El Dorado led 45-20 at the intermission. The third quarter was a flurry of more dunks and 3-pointers and ended with the Wildcats in control 72-32. Foster and Johnson added 18 and 17, respectively, for El Dorado, which played without sophomore Brendan Simmons, out indefinitely with a stress fracture. Greene finished with 12 points. Marquez Ester led the Leopards with 18 points. In the girls game, El Dorado led 43-37 with 3:17 remaining in the fourth. But, DeQueen’s Maddie Martin came off the bench to hit a 3-pointer, triggering a 9-0 spurt. Abby Dykes had back-to-back buckets for the Lady Leopards, who took advantage of three costly turnovers down the stretch by the Lady Wildcats. Dykes’ jump shot gave DeQueen a 44-43 lead with 1:14 remaining. El Dorado tried to hold for a shot but turned the ball over on the sideline. Ashley Dykes hit two free throws with 13.5 left on the clock to extend the lead to three. The Lady Wildcats tried to set up a 3-point attempt for Grace Murry but the play broke down. Double-teamed in the corner as the clock wound down, Murry’s desperation heave at the buzzer wasn’t close. “The bottom line was, we just had way too many turnovers at the end of the ball game. We had a gameplan in place. It worked. We did not execute down the stretch,” said El Dorado coach Destinee Rogers. “We definitely made some huge, inexperienced mistakes as far as not taking care of the ball. I felt like some of my guards didn’t want it at that moment and, that’s O.K. That’s alright because you learn from it. “But, I will tell you something. We are not the same team as when we played them the first time. “The first time they did whatever they wanted with us, beat us however they wanted. They had to fight to win tonight. So, if we got that much better in a month-and-a-half, I’m excited about where we’ll be in another month.” DeQueen, which improved to 13-4, beat El Dorado 40-29 in early December. Diamond Hawthorne and Tasia Richardson led the Lady Wildcats with 14 and 12, respectively, as El Dorado fell to 6-10. Josie Burke scored 15 for DeQueen with Abby Dykes and Ashley Dykes adding 10 points each. The teams were tied 14-14 after one quarter and El Dorado led 24-22 at the half. The score was knotted at 30-30 going into the fourth. The Lady Wildlcats built a 38-32 lead after a 6-0 spurt. Hawthorne scored in the lane before Murry fed Jessica Morton for a lay-up. Hawthorne scored again off an offensive rebound. The margin was 43-37 after Martie Wade scored off an assist by Richardson. Breya Clark’s steal and pass to Wade led to a free throw with 3:17 left to play. Down the stretch, Clark was sidelined with a leg cramp. The junior had dogged Abby Dykes defensively in the second half. In Clark’s absence, Dykes scored the next two baskets for DeQueen. “A huge key was when Breya went down. That was unfortunate,” said Rogers. “Her defense was unbelieveable this game. It’s very unfortunate how it played out. I’m not down about it. We fought. “We’ll use it as a teachable moment and we’ll get ready for Tuesday against Camden.”

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
El Dorado High School Athletics

EL DORADO RECORDS SPLIT WITH DEQUEEN

TONY BURNS

El Dorado News-Times | 1/20/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: El Dorado High School Athletics