Siloam Springs fell behind early Sunday against a bigger, faster and more athletic Little Rock Hall team that had already beaten them once this season.
The Panthers could never dig out of the early hole and fell to the Warriors 65-48 in the opening round of the Class 6A State Tournament at Panther Activity Center.
Hall scored the first 12 points of the game and pulled ahead 25-8 at halftime and in complete control of the game.
But instead of folding their tent in the second half and drifting into the offseason, the Panthers gave their fans something to cheer about in the second half.
Siloam Springs came out re-energized to start the second half and cut Hall's lead down to 33-22 with a 14-8 run to open the second half.
"Obviously we challenged the kids at halftime, and they answered the call and came out and played with passion and played hard," said Siloam Springs coach Tim Stewart. "Today Hall was better than us. Everybody watching the game knew that. But it spoke to the kids' character and heart. They're playing for a bigger purpose than themselves. That propels you to the second half where they did a lot of good things. That's fun."
Luke Loveless opened the second half with a steal and score for the Panthers (11-16), and then the sophomore guard knocked down a 3-pointer in the corner as the Panthers pulled within 27-13.
Junior post Kyle Snavely made it 27-15 with a basket down low, and after Hall's Drelane Walters scored inside, Snavely answered with a pair of free throws on the other end.
Walters scored again, but Siloam Springs freshman Marquan Sorrells had a driving basket, and Tucker Gambill hit a 3-pointer in the corner to pull the Panthers within 33-22 and get the home crowd on its feet.
The Panthers went cold over the rest of the third quarter as Hall re-established itself and pulled ahead by 23 points after a basket-and-one by guard Antonio Edwards.
"Our game plan was to keep a hand in their face all night and try and speed them up," said Hall coach Jon Coleman. "I thought we were able to do that for most of the game."
Siloam Springs played strong at the end of the fourth quarter to get the Warriors' lead back under 20 points.
Hall, which also defeated Siloam Springs 51-30 in the Fayetteville Tournament in December, had four players score in double digits, led by Drelane Walters' 17 points. Eric Daily and Antonio Edwards each scored 11 for the Warriors, while Dayton Artis added 10.
Snavely led the Panthers with 12 points and would wind up leading the Panthers in scoring in 2014-15 at 10 points per game. Snavely is one of several players returning next season that have the Siloam Springs coaches excited about the future of Panther basketball. Loveless, a sophomore, averaged 10.4 points per game over the last five games, while Sorrells, sophomore Noah Karp and juniors Kyle Comiskey, Tyler Newton, Jordan Norberg and Matthew McSpadden all saw significant minutes during the year.
"We're going to lose some pieces, but we have a lot of pieces here," Stewart said. "If they put the time in this summer, they're obviously coachable and the attitudes are right. We're going to have a bright future."
With 1:09 left in the fourth quarter, Siloam Springs brought its 2015 seniors -- Brandon Johnson, Keetun Pierce, Tucker Gambill and Austin Hornbuckle -- off the floor one last time to a standing ovation from the home crowd. Senior guard Roman Lambert had fouled out earlier in the game. Those five seniors all started on what ended up being senior night for Siloam Springs, and they all contributed offensively. Pierce had five points, while Gambill and Hornbuckle each scored three, including an athletic three-point play from Hornbuckle in the second half. Johnson and Lambert each scored two points.
"Those seniors had some great moments this year," Stewart said. "Obviously it didn't end like we wanted it to, and there's some ups and downs, but at the end of the day there were some really fun moments this year."
The Panthers finished the season with an 11-16 record; they lost their last nine straight games. Things were looking promising after a 43-42 home win against Conway on Jan. 23. At that point the Panthers were 3-2 in the 7A/6A-Central, having also beaten Greenwood 60-57 in overtime on Jan. 13 and won at Russellville 49-48 on Jan. 16.
"We knew when we won at Russellville, that was a big win because there's no sluffs in our conference," Stewart said. "There's not a sluff and every team is able to beat you any night. That's a challenge, and we're going to keep striving to meet that challenge and win this conference."
LR Hall 65, Siloam Springs 48
Siloam Springs 2 6 19 21 -- 48
Little Rock Hall 12 13 23 17 -- 65
Siloam Springs (11-16): Snavely 12, Loveless 8, Pierce 5, Sorrells 5, Karp 4, Gambill 3, Hornbuckle 3, Johnson 2, Newton 2, Lambert 2, Norberg 2.
Little Rock Hall (19-9): Walters 17, Edwards 11, Daily 11, Artis 10, Verges 6, Smith 5, Gordon 2, Beal 2, Jackson 1.
Sports on 03/11/2015