HARRISON — It was closer than the scoreboard showed.
Tuesday night in the Class 1A State Basketball Tournament being held at North Arkansas College, the Jasper Pirates had three bad trips down the floor in an one minute stretch that resulted in Marked Tree securing a first round win over the Pirates.
Marked Tree defeated Jasper, 56-38.
Jasper could have thrown in the towel at halftime, however, the Pirates didn’t.
Three straight points by the Pirates, which included a bucket by Blake Williams and a free throw by Malijah Campbell, cut the Marked Tree lead to single digits at 40-31, with 2:58 left in the third.
Jasper didn’t score again and the aggressive Indians scored two baskets before the quarter ended. Both of the field goals were after collecting an offensive rebound.
The Pirates started the fourth with a basket from Spencer Traywick after he got a pass from Sawyer Willis.
The Indians responded with a score.
Traywick scored for the Pirates after Williams picked off a pass while laying on the floor.
Neither team scored until nearly two minutes later. Williams attempted a 3-point shot and was fouled.
He hit the first and third free throws to cut the score to 46-37.
The Pirates recorded a stop and had the ball back on the offensive end.
Then things turned sour for Jasper.
A turnover resulted in a layup for Marked Tree and then on the next possession the Pirates lost the ball again. The Indians hit another uncontested layup to push the score to 50-37 with 3:18 left to play.
Marked Tree forced the Pirates into a third turnover.
That resulted into another score for the Indians.
Jasper got the ball down the court and Campbell was fouled. He connected on a free throw. That was the last Pirate point of the season.
Marked Tree scored the last four points of the game as the Pirates tried to hit 3-pointers to reduce their deficit.
Marked Tree started the game with a 13-8 lead at the first stop.
Willis hit a trey and a basket to account for five points. Campbell completed a three-point play to account for the rest of the points.
The Indians hit 25 points in the second period and increased its lead to 38-21.
Traywick led Jasper in scoring with 14 points. Willis added 11, Campbell seven, Williams four and Canaan Hudson two.
