Maumelle outscored El Dorado 17-1 to start the second quarter and would end up pulling away for a 71-59 victory Tuesday night in non-conference action at Wildcat Arena. The Hornets improved to 8-2 behind the strong inside play of Darius Rasberry, who finished with 21 points.
El Dorado coach Jimmy Porter felt his team got outmuscled in the paint.
“Rebounding, (Rasberry) for them killed us on the boards. We knew that coming in,” said Porter. “We told the boys rebounding would be the difference in the game. I think we were losing the rebounding battle 17 to 11 at the half. We allowed them to get out in transition, get some easy points. They had some second-chance points by allowing those offensive rebounds and that really helped extend that lead.”
El Dorado (3-8) trimmed the deficit to 34-23 at the half but trailed 58-43 going into the final quarter.
The Wildcats got as close as 63-54 on a 3-pointer by Bryson Baulden with 2:45 remaining and 65-56 on a Baulden free throw with 2:12 left.
But, forced to foul, the Hornets wouldn’t cooperate at the line. Maumelle hit two at the stripe with 1:36 left before Rasberry beat the defense down the floor for a layup to seal the win.
“I thought the boys played hard all the way through,” said Porter. “We’ve got to make those chip shots. We missed a lot of shots we have to make. You can’t beat good teams if you miss chip shot layups.
“I really liked our game plan defensively, what we did against their ball screen. I think we really stunned them on that. And we did a decent job getting out on those shooters. We just weren’t making our layups.”
Isaiah Ramey had 20 for the Wildcats. Jarmel Love had 14 with Baulden adding 10.
Kaleb Thurman added 16 for Maumelle with Carl Daugherty and Josh Denton scoring 12 and 11, respectively.
El Dorado played the bulk of the game without 6-foot-6 sophomore Laronte McHenry, who left with an injury in the first quarter. The Wildcats travel to Little Rock Parkview on Thursday.