By Jeff Halpern 

HOT SPRINGS — One year after suffering a 66-60 defeat to Little Rock Central in the Class 6A semifinals, the Conway Lady Wampus Cats (28-5) made their dream come true with 62-53 victory over North Little Rock (26-6) in the 6A state championship game in front of 3,546 fans at Bank OZK Arena.

“I think I speak for all of us when I say last year at this time, I was depressed,” said Conway head coach Ashley Hutchcraft, whose team last year lost to a Little Rock Central team it defeated by 99 combined points in two regular season games. “I was sitting at home last year in pajamas in a dark room, and we had to push each other. Most teenagers after something like that will transfer or blame each other and that didn’t happen here. All these girls attended Conway from kindergarten through 12th grade. We took a couple weeks off after the season and talked about how we were going to work smarter and not harder.”
