As far as the Northside Lady Bears were concerned, Saturday’s game with Greenwood was all about revenge — and pride.

Three weeks ago on the same Kaundart-Grizzly Fieldhouse court, the Lady Bulldogs defeated the Lady Bears by 11 points in the third-place game at the Taco Bell Tournament of Champions.

But in Saturday’s rematch, it was all Northside.

The Lady Bears led from start to finish, and behind a big performance from junior point guard Jersey Wolfenbarger, avenged that earlier loss to Greenwood with a 68-50 win.

“That’s one of the proudest I’ve ever been of a team, regardless of wins or losses or scores or anything, that’s one of the proudest I’ve ever been of a team,” Northside coach Rickey Smith said. “Backed against a wall, been beat (three) weeks ago, playing an outstanding Greenwood team. ... You defend your home court.

“As Jersey said, ‘We’re still Northside.’ Just so proud of our team, I really am ... That’s a huge win; there’s not going to be very many teams that will beat Greenwood.”

Northside (11-3) came out and put together a strong defensive showing in the first quarter against a Greenwood team which had played the night before, winning 88-72 at Farmington.

The Lady Bears scored the first six points and outscored the Lady Bulldogs in the opening quarter, 16-2.

“We’ve always had the zone defense; we haven’t used it a lot, I’m a man guy, but we rolled the dice and went zone early and got out to a big lead and we needed every point,” Smith said.

As Smith alluded to in his comments, the Lady Bulldogs (10-3) fought back behind a barrage of 3-point baskets. They made six 3's in the second quarter; the last coming from Madi Cartwright which pulled the Lady Bulldogs within four points before Northside took a 34-29 lead at halftime.

Midway through the third quarter, Greenwood made it a two-point Northside lead, 41-39, when Kinley Fisher finished off a three-point play.

But Northside closed out the quarter on an 8-1 run, capped by Jalyn Ford’s three-point play, to build the lead back up to nine, 49-40.

Wolfenbarger then started the fourth quarter with a shot off the glass, followed by two free throws as the Lady Bears regained a double-digit lead. Northside eventually led by as many as 19 points.

“We haven’t shown that mental toughness all year long that we had to have (Saturday),” Smith said. “When they made that run, I was really, really worried. ... They missed two or three shots that they normally hit and that helped us, and then we got some rebounds.”

For the game, Wolfenbarger had 33 points and went 18-of-21 from the foul line. She also had eight rebounds.


“We wanted to win; we wanted to be there and we had something to prove,” Wolfenbarger said. “Just to our community and to our fans, we wanted them to know that they fought for us so we fought for them.”

Northside also got a boost from sophomore forward Haitianna Releford, who had 16 points and grabbed 17 rebounds. Releford helped the Lady Bears overcome the loss of junior forward Tracey Bershers, who missed Saturday’s game with a back injury.

?(Releford) is a special player, she really is,” Smith said. “She goes and gets rebounds. ... She got big rebounds, and helped handle the basketball versus the pressure.”

Fisher led the Lady Bulldogs with 19 points and made three 3's. Jaelin Glass added 11 points and two 3's.

Northside is at home again on Friday to open 6A-Central play against Bryant. Greenwood tips off 5A-West play on Friday on the road at Little Rock Christian.

Northside 54, Greenwood 30

BOYS — The Grizzlies finally had their home opener on Saturday, and were determined to take care of business.


Northside scored the game’s first 10 points, highlighted by a dunk from senior Jaylin Williams, and later built a 28-5 second-quarter lead. The Grizzlies (10-4) have now won eight straight ballgames.

“I thought the guys came out and did a really good job defensively because that’s what got us the lead,” Northside coach Eric Burnett said. “Just us flying around and getting steals and just going hard.

“Jaylin’s dunk kind of got us really motivated, too, so it was good to see them get out and just play some good defense.”

Williams had 17 of his game-high 20 points by halftime. His only three points in the second half came on a 3-pointer.

Jayce Garnes scored nine points to lead the Bulldogs (3-10).
