HOT SPRINGS (KFSM) - North Little Rock had their 2014 7A basketball championship vacated by the Arkansas Activities Association.
They took it back Saturday morning at the Bank of the Ozarks Arena.
The Charging Wildcats used a 26-13 second half run to hold off Bentonville for the 66-59 win in the 7A title game. Florida commit KeVaughn Allen scored 18 of North Little Rock's 26 points during that run. Allen finished with a game high 28 points on 10-of-19 shooting.
A Malik Monk basket with 3:27 left in the game tied the contest at 57-57 but the Tigers managed just two points over the final stretch, allowing North Little Rock to ice the game at the foul line.
It was the first title game appearance in Bentonville's basketball program history but they fell just short despite getting 25 points and nine rebounds from Monk while Ben Smith added 22 in the loss. No other Tiger player finished with more than four points. North Little Rock got 19 points from K.J. Hill while Adrian Moore added 10 and pulled down 10 rebounds.
The Tigers were able to do a majority of their damage from long distance as they hit 10-of-26 from 3-point range including a 5-of-6 effort from Smith.