Cabot wins trophy at VBHS

The Cabot boys’ basketball team won the Citizen Bank Invitational at Van Buren over the weekend, winning three games in three days by wide margins to improve to 5-1 on the season. The tournament started with a 64-45 win over Subiaco Academy on Thursday. The Panthers then annihilated Mountain Home 54-21 on Friday. That set up a championship game against Fort Smith Southside that the Panthers won 61-43 on Saturday. “I thought we did all right,” said Cabot coach Jerry Bridges. “I’m not going to say it was the toughest tournament we’ve ever played in, but Southside is athletic. We played good defense. I was proud of that. And we can shoot the ball. When we’re making shots we’re not a bad little team.” The Panthers entered the tournament after a nine-day layoff following their only loss of the season, 50-40 loss at home to J.A. Fair. Bridges was pleased that his team improved in the areas he thought were problems in that game. “We just didn’t defend like we’re supposed to and like I know we can,” Bridges said. “Fair had something to do with that. They have some long athletes and they’re quick, but I just thought we didn’t play with intensity like we’re going to need to play. That got better. We played hard up there, and we don’t have a choice but to play hard if we want to have a chance in the league we’re in.” Senior post player Noah Allgood led the team with 19 points and seven rebounds in the win over Subiaco Academy (4-3). Jalen Brown made four 3-pointers and added 14 points while Jared Vance hit three 3-pointers and scored 11. Landon Vaught matched Allgood’s production on the boards and scored four points. Mountain Home (1-4) has suffered season-ending injuries to its two best players and could not keep up with Cabot. The Panthers led 34-9 at halftime and got a chance to go deep into the bench. Brown led the team with 10 points while Vaught and Christian Weir scored nine apiece. Jacob Hudson, Mario May and Vance each scored six. The championship game didn’t start well for Cabot. Southside had beaten Mena 81-41 and Van Buren 58-51 to get the final. The Panthers made just three baskets in the first quarter, but two of them were 3-pointers. Still, The Mavericks held a 12-8 lead going into the second period. Cabot’s defense returned the favor in the second period. Southside (4-2) managed just one basket and five points while Cabot added three more 3-pointers to help stretch out a 27-17 lead by halftime. All five first-half 3-pointers were from five different players. Six different Panthers scored in the third quarter as the lead stretched to 42-29. T.J. Rogers then became the seventh Panther to hit one of their nine 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. Brown led all players with 23 points while Hudson added 10 for Cabot and May scored eight. Ollis Brewer was the only Maverick in double figures with 15 points, and was only the second player in the tournament to score in double figures against Cabot. Subiaco Academy’s Devon Forst scored 16 in the first game. The Panthers are hosting the Cabot Pre-Holiday Classic this week. Boys’ and girls’ action began Monday and Cabot took the floor Tuesday night after Leader deadlines.

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CABOT WINS TROPHY AT VBHS

RAY BENTON

The Arkansas Leader | 12/6/2017

PHOTO CREDIT: Ray Benton