Airedales steam into post-season
By Kevin Taylor
Alma Schools
Sometimes, the best laid plans just sort of find their way out of the shadows. Former Alma basketball coaches Stan Flenor and Dominic Lincoln knew about the team’s potentially strong 2027 class.
But wins don’t define a program five years before they’ve reached high school. Character, on the other hand, doesn’t lie.
Alma’s strong junior class figured to be in the thick of the 5A-West race long before Shep Newcomb arrived on the scene. But once the former Ozark Catholic senior pulled on his No. 5 Alma jersey and got to know the core of the team, all first-year coach Cody Vaught had to do was stay out of the way.
“Our team is very close, and I think the credit has to go back to a long time ago, when they were kids, and their families came together for a common cause,” Vaught said. “They (players) care about each other because of the way they were raised.”
The Airedales finished off the season last week with gritty road wins against two teams playing for their playoff lives — Van Buren and Siloam Springs.
Already circled in as the No. 2 seed from the 5A-West, Newcomb and his new teammates refused to lose.
“We didn’t have to win; we still can get the two seed, but both the teams we’re playing have to win,” Vaught said. “I think that says a lot about our team.”
Alma’s 23-win season is the most since the 2012-13 campaign — the last of three state championship appearances for the Airedales between 2005-13.
A win over West Memphis in Thursday’s 5A state tournament will give the program its first 24-win season since 2005.
“It’s been a lot of fun playing this season, especially bringing in Shep,” explains Carson Curd, one of seven players who’ve played together since the second grade. “It took a second to get used to Shep, but once we realized he could score, and teams started guarding him harder, he started kicking it out, and we started making shots.”
Alma buried 16 3-pointers in last week’s 90-79 win over Siloam Springs. In the 77 games between the two schools, it’s the most points ever scored by the Airedales over the Panthers, eclipsing the previous high-water mark of 78 set back in 2009.
It isn’t just Newcomb’s agility that allows him to blow past taller players and to get to the rim, but it’s his uncanny ability to find open teammates.
Newcomb is averaging 22.9 points per game, but combined with his 5.3 assists per game, he’s accounting for 35 to 40 points per game — as long as players like Curd, Luke Stogsdill, and Brody Johnson are knocking down 3-pointers.
The ‘Alma Seven’ includes the aforementioned Curd, Stogsdill, Johnson, Lawson Adams, Cade Moore, Sammy Moore, and Landon Taylor.
Curd had four of Alma’s 3-pointers in last week’s win over Siloam Springs, and Johnson, who comes off the bench, was 3-of-7 from deep with 11 points and three assists, matching a season high for dimes three nights earlier in a 78-65 win over Van Buren.
One of the biggest surprises in terms of numbers has been Adams, who is quietly averaging 11.2 points per game and 7.3 rebounds per game.
All he did last week was go for 16 and 15 against Van Buren and 14 and eight in the team’s win at Siloam Springs.
Alma swept everyone in the 5A-West, save conference champion Farmington (27-1). The sweep of Van Buren gives the Airedales their first-ever four-game winning streak over the Pointers. Alma, in fact, is 5-1 against the Pointers over the last three seasons.
“Back in football season, we played Van Buren in nonconference, and I got to witness how many people came to the game and how much it mattered to them,” Vaught said. “Because I’m not from here, that’s when you first realize what the rivalry is. I played in some big state tournament games (back in high school), and this would rival that, especially our crowd. We couldn’t even hear each other.”