A new defensive look and a bit more fourth quarter energy helped Siloam Springs' boys basketball team rally for a victory on Tuesday night.
Siloam Springs outscored Clarksville 27-13 in the fourth quarter to rally for a 61-50 win in a battle of Panthers inside Panther Activity Center.
Siloam Springs switched out of its 2-3 defensive zone to a triangle-and-two offense, which focused on Clarksville's two best players, guards Trace Thomas and Bob Hurley.
The new look gave Clarksville fits and Siloam Springs took advantage down the stretch to earn its second 5A/6A District 1 victory.
"We challenged the kids," said Siloam Springs head coach Tim Stewart. "We thought they were kind of flat, had some frustration early, and our kids down the stretch executed on both ends. We were playing a new defense that we haven't played in live action yet -- triangle-and-two. Offense we wanted some specific cuts and reads, and in the fourth quarter we were really proud of the kids. They were able to function under pressure and get those looks and frustrate Trace and Hurley.
"I thought our defense was good enough that we frustrated them. Down the stretch hit free throws and got a big conference win."
Clarksville led 37-34 going into the fourth quarter after sophomore Cameron Patterson drained a 3-pointer after crossing midcourt.
Siloam Springs got within one to start the fourth on a basket by Diego Flores and then took the lead on another Flores basket.
Clarksville responded with a run to get the lead back at 42-41 after a basket by Miquel Rivera inside, but Siloam Springs had an answer.
Evan Sauer's 3-pointer gave Siloam Springs the lead for good at 44-42 and the home-team Panthers built on that lead from there.
Siloam Springs would go on to hit 12 of 15 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter, including 10 fourth quarter points from Spencer Lashley, who led Siloam Springs with 17 points.
Murphy Perkins scored 12 points for Siloam Springs, while Jacob Wakefield had 11.
Thomas led all scorers with 25 points for Clarksville, but he only had three of those points in the fourth quarter with Siloam Springs already up by a comfortable margin. Hurley added eight points for Clarksville.
The triangle-and-two defense put man-to-man pressure on the guards up top with a three-man look in the paint providing help.
"We run that zone, but their two kids are so good with the ball in their hands that we wanted to try to just limit it to where we were having man-to-man pressure with a lot of help behind us," Stewart said. When they do beat our one kid off the dribble, there's two guys walling the basket. We wanted to deny them the ball as much as we could and make those other kids make shots. They had the one kid hit the three in the fourth quarter, but that was about it, so we're just trying to take it out of the best option's hands."
Clarksville coach Tony Davis gave credit to Siloam Springs for making the needed adjustments to win. He also felt like there were some missed foul calls along the way against his smaller players.
"Coach (Stewart) does a good job," Davis said. "They made the transition to triangle-and-two, and we just didn't make many shots. We struggled against it. I thought that was the difference in the game. It is what it is.
"I thought my guys drove a couple of times and didn't get many calls. If we're not protecting my little mighty mites we're going to struggle sometimes. But you know, they did a good job going junk (defense) and making plays when they needed to."
Siloam Springs 61, Clarksville 50
Clarksville^10^16^11^13^--^50
Siloam Springs^12^12^10^27^--^61
Clarksville (3-12, 1-2): Thomas 25, Hurley 8, Clark 5, Rivera 4, Patterson 3, Lindsey 3, Jackson 2.
Siloam Springs (4-13, 2-1): Lashley 17, Perkins 12, Wakefield 11, Sorrells 7, Flores 6, Clement 3, Sauer 3, Stewart 2.
Sports on 01/14/2018