Coming into the second week of the regular season the Senior High Bulldogs were sitting at an undefeated 3-0. They would host their next opponent, the Ozark Hillbillies, on Monday, November 15 to try to remain undefeated. It was a grit and grind, low scoring game that came down to the final possession.

Lidge Stinson started the scoring for the dogs with back-to-back driving lay-ins, but the Hillbillies would answer with two three-pointers of their own. Coach Atchley, frustrated with his starting lineup, pulled them all out in the first quarter. The Bulldogs began to full-court press with the new small-ball lineup that was just put in the game and forced turnovers which led to a kick-out three by Trenton Hunt. “Fish” Mcconnell would then add another layup to even the score at 9-9. The Hillbillies dribbled down the clock to get the final shot of the quarter, and they buried a three-pointer as time expired. At the end of the first, Ozark was up with a score of 9-12.

Ozark came out in the second quarter in a zone defense but was quickly forced out of it as Lidge Stinson sliced through the defense and got a nice reverse layup to roll in. Junior Forrest Efurd checked into the ball game and quickly threw a dime to Chris Lopez to put the dogs up 13-12. The Dogs would then go on a 10-2 run which was highlighted by a Mcconnell three-pointer and a Stinson three-pointer. Ozark again dribbled the clock down to get the final shot and again made another three-point attempt as the clock hit zero to send it to halftime. The Bulldogs led at the half by 6 with a score of 24-18.

The Dogs coming out of the Half started in a zone defense of their own which they would stick to mostly for the rest of the game. Camdon Holcomb got the scoring going in the second half for the Bulldogs with a lay-up to bring the score to 26-21. The Bulldog defense gave the Hillbillies fits as they were struggling to even make a pass. The Dogs would clog the passing lanes leaving no option but to throw the ball over the top which led to a lot of turnovers for the Hillbillies. However, the Bulldogs had a fair share of turnovers as well as they tried to feed the post inside. The Dogs defense only allowed 3 points in the third quarter, but they were not able to capitalize as they only scored 3 themselves to make the score 27-21 Bulldogs.  

Waldron stuck to their zone to start the fourth quarter. It was still causing problems for the Hillbillies as they were forced into taking contested threes. The Bulldogs offense was stagnant. Lidge Stinson scored the only point in the quarter for the Dogs with a 2-point runner in the lane. Coming off a sideline inbounds play Ozark threw a lob to the rim which resulted in an and-one, pulling the Hillbillies within one point. The Dogs then began to hold the ball and run out the clock, but after a missed lay-up by Trenton Hunt, the Hillbillies had the ball with 17 seconds left. In the final possession “Fish” Mcconnell stole the ball from the Hillbilly offense with no time remaining. The Bulldogs pulled it out even with the lack of offense with the final score ending up being 29-28. Lidge Stinson led all scorers with 13 points.

Coach Atchley said, “Defense got just enough stops to win the game. Our effort was not to the level that we expected, but we will get that fixed. As always, I am proud of my dudes for coming out with a win. Offensively, we never got into a rhythm and settled for some jump shots, but we still found a way to win.“

The Bulldogs will host the Magazine Rattlers on Tuesday, November 16. Junior High girls will begin at 4:30 followed by Junior High boys, Senior High girls, and Senior High boys.  

During the summer Waldron hired a new head Junior high boys coach in Zak Terwilliger. Coach Terwilliger, also known as Coach Twigs, graduated from Mena High School in 2016 and received his bachelor’s degree from Henderson State in 2020. Coach Twigs was eager to get on the hardwood and show his new Waldron community what his team was all about.

The Junior Bulldogs opened their season against the Caddo Hills Indians. The starting lineup for the dogs consisted of Keegan Lynch, Caden Hunt, Cole Bailey, Roky Avila, and Aiden Allen. The Dogs easily outmatched the Indians and won convincingly with the final score of 42-18. Freshman Keegan Lynch forced multiple turnovers which led to easy transition layups. Their next opponent, the Fountain Lake Cobras, put up more of a fight. Waldron was able to squeak by with a 1-point win of 34-33. The twin tower interior duo of Roky Avila and Aden Allen blocked a lot of shots around the rim and gobbled up every rebound.

Coming off back-to-back wins the Bulldogs would travel to Mansfield to face the Tigers. Coach Twigs said that in this game, “We could not buy a bucket.” The Tigers, on the other hand, were hot from the three-point line. Even through the poor shooting night, Waldron was still able to make a game out of it with the final outcome being 34-29 in favor of the Tigers.

The following evening the Bulldogs would travel to Ozark to compete in the PBJI tournament against the Pottsville Apaches. Pottsville had an exceptionally good team, but the Dogs still managed to compete and make the game competitive until the 4th quarter. With it being the third night in the row the Dogs had played, they just simply ran out of gas. The final score did not show how close the game was.

Coach Twigs had this to say following his first week of being the Junior High coach and his team’s 2-2 start. “Overall I am excited for them, I think the team and I learned what we do well and what we need to improve on. They play really hard and are falling in love with the game which is important in building a team to win games.” 

The Bulldogs next Junior High matchup will be against the Magazine Rattlers on November 16th in the WAC. Junior girls will kick off the action at 4:30 followed by Junior boys, Senior girls, and Senior boys.