So Proud of my son Abel!!!
Read the news bellow!
Abel Hutchinson stood in front of the Bentonville bench when he took the bounce pass from Jaylen Lee and fired up a shot just before the shot clock reached zero.
The junior’s three-point attempt hit nothing but net with 14 seconds left, and it allowed the Tigers to enjoy 6A-West Conference perfection Friday night with a 56-50 victory over Bentonville West in Wolverine Arena.
“They had two guys on Jaylen, and I knew the shot clock was low,” Hutchinson said. “I knew it was deep, but I knew the shot clock was low, so I just pulled it and it went in.
“It felt good, but I had to stand and watch it and make sure. I don’t even think I got excited because I ran back on defense. I know Jaylen slapped my hand, and it’s red right now.”
Bentonville (20-1, 14-0) led 49-36 after Anthony Wilson went inside and scored the first bucket of the fourth quarter before West (16-10, 9-5) made things interesting. The Wolverines put together a 9-2 run and cut their deficit to 51-45 on Dawson Price’s bucket with 3:39 left.
Hutchinson then broke the Tigers’ four-minute dry spell without a bucket when he scored with 3:13 remaining, but West added another bucket by Price and a three-pointer by Evan White to make it a 53-50 game with 51.2 seconds left. Bentonville then held the ball and had only eight seconds on the shot clock before the ball finally got into Hutchinson’s hands one last time.
“It was a good battle, and it’s always a good battle,” said Bentonville Coach Dick Rippee, whose team became the first team to go 14-0 in league play since Fayetteville did it in the 7A-West in 2013. “I’m just hoping now everybody gets out of here healthy on both sides going into the tournament.
“I’m really proud of our guys. It’s really hard to do what we’ve done and not many people have done it. It’s a difficult thing but 14 times our guys came out and hooked it up. They’ve been the favorite probably every single time, and somebody’s always gunning for you. It won’t be any different next week.”
Hutchinson finished with 12 points and Lee 11 for Bentonville, which gets to wait until Thursday’s semifinal round before playing a game in the 6A-West tournament. Riley Buccino led West with 14 points.
West enters the 6A-West tournament as the No. 3 seed and will play Wednesday against the winner of Tuesday’s opening-round game between Springdale and Rogers Heritage.