Northside’s Grizzlies will have to wait another night to bounce back from last Friday’s shocking defeat at Bryant.

Both the games at Little Rock Central for the Lady Bears and Grizzlies, originally scheduled for Tuesday, have been pushed back to Wednesday night due to a flu outbreak at Central’s campus.

For the Grizzlies, that means an additional wait to return to the court on the heels of a 67-44 loss to Bryant on Friday to begin the second half of 6A-Central play. The Hornets built a 16-9 lead at the end of the first quarter before going up by 15 points at halftime, 32-17.

“I know (the second half of conference play was going to be challenging), but I just didn’t expect us to come out and give up all of those points and get beat by 23,” Northside coach Eric Burnett said. “And I hope that woke us up, because that was embarrassing to sit right there and watch us play no defense.

“Sometimes, games like that can wake us up or wake your team up. Hopefully, that will wake us up and we move forward and go back to playing really good defense like we used to because I felt like in each ballgame, we struggled at times during the game but there was one thing I felt like we brought every game and that was good defense. ... For us to come out like we did on Friday night, I wasn’t too pleased with that.”

Burnett added he was going to stress defense when the Grizzlies returned to practice on Monday. And now that he has another day to get ready to go on the road again, it will give Burnett even more time to make some adjustments before Wednesday’s trip.

“They probably want to get out there and play, but the situation (at Central) is we can’t, and so it will eventually have to give us a really good extra day to get prepared for Central, so (the extra day) is good,” Burnett said.

Despite Friday’s loss, Northside (16-6, 6-2) still remains in sole possession of second place in the 6A-Central, but the Grizzlies are now two games back of league leader North Little Rock. NLR defeated Central on Friday, 78-64.

Central (11-10, 4-4) is part of a three-way tie for fourth in the conference along with Bryant and Cabot.


The Grizzlies beat Central 63-44 on Jan. 14 at Northside, but Burnett knows things won’t be easy in the rematch. Last season at Central, Northside needed a buzzer-beating shot from Noah Gordon to escape with a win.

“Any time you can go steal a game on the road, it’s great,” Burnett said. “You just try not to lose any at your home; take care of your home, and try to steal as many as you can on the road and this is one of those games where hopefully we understand that and we go down there ready to try to get us one on the road.”

Senior forward Jaylin Williams had another double-double in Friday’s loss, scoring 14 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. He remains the team’s leader in both categories (19.1 points and 12 rebounds per game). Gordon and Jacob Joe are tied for second in scoring at 7.5 points a game.

On the girls side, the Lady Bears remain in control atop the 6A-Central following Friday’s 56-41 win at Bryant, as Northside (19-3, 8-0) extended its current win streak to 14 straight.

The Lady Bears, who led 27-17 at halftime and 45-34 after three quarters, was led by 24 points from Jersey Wolfenbarger and 11 from Tracey Bershers. Both also grabbed five rebounds apiece, and Wolfenbarger made all five of her free-throw attempts.

Haitiana Releford nearly had a double-double with nine points and 11 boards. She also made two 3-pointers while recording three assists and three steals.

On the season, Wolfenbarger continues to lead the Lady Bears in scoring, averaging 18.9 points a game, followed by Bershers (15.8) and Releford (9.9). Releford is the team’s top rebounder with 7.1 boards per game, followed by Wolfenbarger (6.8) and Bershers (6.5).


Northside’s teams return home this Friday, with the Lady Bears taking on Mount St. Mary while the Grizzlies face Little Rock Catholic.

As for Southside, both the Mavericks and Lady Mavericks are at home again on Tuesday, this time to take on Cabot. Both Southside teams are still seeking its first win in conference play after being swept at home last Friday against Conway.

Cabot’s girls come in at 18-3 overall and are in third place in the 6A-Central at 6-2, two games back of Northside for first place and a game behind second-place Conway. The Cabot Panthers, meanwhile, are part of a three-way tie for fourth in the conference at 4-4 and the Panthers are also 14-7 overall.
