The Poplar Bluff coaches joked prior to Friday's season opener that if Dominique Hardimon can't reach 1,000 points for his Poplar Bluff career in the game, the Mules were going to be in trouble.
Hardimon, who played at South Pemiscot as a freshman, entered his senior season with 997 points as a Mule. It took five minutes, but Hardimon got there when he took an inbounds pass coast-to-coast for a layup through a foul with 3:05 on the clock in the first quarter.
Hardimon also had a free throw earlier in the quarter and finished with 20 in the game to lead the Mules as they beat Arkansas (Texarkana, Ark.) 88-66 at the Senior High Gym.
"It feels good," Hardimon said. "I'm excited that I got it, and it really wasn't even me, it was my teammates getting me in that position to make the 1,000 points."
Hardimon also had 438 points as a freshman at South Pemiscot, giving him 1,455 points for his high school career following Friday's game.
"It was nice to see," Poplar Bluff coach William Durden said of Hardimon reaching 1,000 points as a Mule. "He was kind of pressing at the beginning, so now that it is over with I think he'll be good."
The Mules led 25-24 with a little under 6 minutes left in the first half and then closed the half with an 11-point run to take control of the game.
"We got a little more composure about ourselves. I thought the seniors really stepped up," Durden said. "We spread them out a little bit in the second quarter and took advantage of their overly aggressive defense."
Nik Rowland, who finished with 10 points in the game and had seven during the run, had a pair of putbacks to start the run and then the Mules put the Arkansas starting lineup into foul trouble.
The Mules made five trips to the foul line in the closing minutes of the half, notching a third foul against three different Razorbacks.
Arkansas never made a dent in the second half. Joseph Hardimon made a pair of free throws early in the fourth quarter to push the lead to 21 points and the Mules led by as much as 24 late.
The demons of Poplar Bluff returned for the season opener. The Mules once again struggled at the free-throw line as a team and were 20 of 33 (60.6 percent). Hardimon was 8 for 16 and the Mules had four trips where they were 2 for 2.
"That's been our Achilles' Heel since I've been here," Durden said. "That is something they are going to have to work on, on their own. A lot of times it is because of fatigue and they're not concentrating, and then they miss that first one and overcorrect. We are going to have to get better at that because that lost us some close games last year."
Poplar Bluff struggled with turnovers and silly mistakes during back-and-forth play early in the game.
"We were just nervous. Our first game, you know how it is," said senior Xander Martin, who had 12 points. "We need to calm down and once we get everything figured out, I think it will be good."
Add Durden, "The early turnovers and early missed shots, I thought the guys were moving way too fast. The guys were just overly excited, which is a good thing, they were excited to play, but we had a lot of little mistakes at the beginning of the game."
Arkansas consistently ran 5-out sets throughout the game against the Mules' versatile defense.
"Matchup wise, it was a good thing for us to see. They ran it better than us tonight. You can tell they've played a game," Durden said. "It was good for our kids because they really cut backdoor well, handled the ball well and tried to attack the basket. It's just one of these games there are a lot of little things that are going to help us improve throughout the season."
Carlton McDonald-Jordan added 15 points for Poplar Bluff. He made two of the team's six 3-pointers. Martin also made two.