Har-Ber knew they had a very tough match-up going into the Jan. 24 game. They had to face one of the powerhouses of 7A West basketball, the Fayettville Bulldogs (12-6,2-4). But no one expected the Wildcats (7-13,0-6) to stay in the game for as long as they did.

At halftime the Wildcats were only losing 28-25.

The Bulldogs didn’t start to pull away from the Wildcats until the fourth quarter. They outscored the Wildcats 17-26 in the final quarter. The Bulldogs pulled off the victory, 54-69.

“They are the number one team in the state right now and no one expected us to play with them and we did,” said senior guard Jacob Berry. “We were right there with them until late in the fourth.”

The Wildcats were led by Berry who scored 18, and it seemed like he couldn’t miss from beyond the arc.

“I knew I had to step up for us to have a chance, so I worked to get my shot and they just kept going in,” said Berry.

The big story for the Wildcats was that this conference  game was a personnal battle. Senior forward C.J. Tyson was returning to Fayettville to play against his former team and school.

“I felt kinda nervous, but it felt good to play them,” said Tyson.

Despite gaining their sixth straight loss, the Wildcats also gained a huge scare late in the fourth quarter. Senior forward Jon Vaughn (who scored 14) fell to the ground grimacing in pain Vaughn rolled his ankle was forced to sit on the bench for the rest of the game.

Vaughn is expected to play in the next game vs. Rogers Heritage (12-9,1-5) on Friday (Jan. 27).