By ISAAC BOURNE | The Arkadelphian

The Arkadelphia Badgers (15-9) never trailed in their 56-45 win over the Nashville Scrappers (10-12) Tuesday night. 

In a relatively poor shooting night for the Badgers, senior guard Chris Gray again led scoring for the team with 16 points, while sophomore guards OB Roberts and James Elgas had 14 and 12 respectively. 

Arkadelphia only made three shots from behind the arc on the night, a season-low for them. Their ability to take the ball into the paint allowed them to come out with the win despite the shooting woes.

“A lot of our game plan obviously revolves around shooting a lot of threes off of our dribble penetration and breakdown of the defense, but tonight a lot of shots like that weren’t falling,” head coach Garrett Garner said. “Our guys didn’t panic and every timeout we stayed positive and encouraged our guys to continue to be aggressive towards the rim and be the aggressors.”

The Badger defense held the Scrappers to just 20 points in the first half with the new 2-3 defense that proved effective in Arkadelphia’s last win on Friday. 

“We have continued to hang our hats on being solid with half-court defense and our guys continue to get better and better, Garner said. “Coach Ware is a big reason these guys have bought into our defensive effort and credit to the entire team for rebounding and limiting them to just one shot every possession all night.”

With this win, the Badgers are 7-6 in conference play, and a win in Malvern against the Leopards Friday night gives them a spot in the 4A South Region tournament in Warren.

“We know what we are going to get from Malvern and they are looking to play spoiler, and they’re going to be really amped up to do that against us Friday,” said Garner. “Our guys will be focused and they won’t back down from the expectations placed in front of them.”