NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — With just one week remaining in the regular season in the 7A-West Conference, there is still a lot of basketball to be played due to the backlog of games from postponements.
Bentonville has the most grueling schedule this week with four games.
On Monday night, Bentonville traveled to Fort Smith to play Southside for makeup games. Then tonight the Bentonville teams travel to Springdale High. On Friday night, Bentonville hosts Rogers High, then the following day hosts Rogers Heritage.
Southside, Springdale Har-Ber, Rogers and Rogers Heritage all play three times this week.
Har-Ber travels to Fayetteville today, hosts Rogers on Thursday, and hosts Heritage on Friday.
Rogers hosts Southside today, while Heritage travels to Northside on Tuesday.
Northside, Springdale High and Fayetteville are the only teams to get back on schedule and play just twice this week.
Good Stretch
Fayetteville played six games the past two weeks, and the Lady Bulldogs rose to the challenge with six wins.
The Lady Bulldogs moved into a first-place tie with Northside with Saturday’s 61-44 win. The Lady Bears were averaging 59.9 points per conference game in reeling off 11 straight wins to open conference play before Saturday night.
Northside’s girls had scored 20 or more points in eight of 48 quarters in conference, going into the showdown with Fayetteville.
The Lady Bulldogs held the Lady Bears to just eight points in the fi rst quarter, 11 in the second, and nine in the third quarter. Fayetteville put the game away with a 24-16 advantage in the fi nal quarter.
True Student-Athletes
Last year, the Rogers Mountaineers won the Arkansas Activities Association’s Academic State Championship for Boys Basketball with a composite varsity team grade-pointaverage of 3.667.
This year, it’s running even higher.
Josh Anderson, Grant Washburn, Nathan Musso and Matt Denefee all boasted a GPA of 4.0 in honors/advanced placement curriculum in the fi rst semester.
“Unfortunately sometimes all that an athlete does is just measured on the court, when in fact they are just more successful in the classroom,” said Rogers coach Marty Barnes.
At It Again
The Rogers Mountaineers improved on their leagueleading defense by beating Heritage, 39-14 on Friday night to set a modern-day school record for fewest points allowed in a game as well as a boys conference record.
Rogers allowed just 6 of 25 fi eld-goal attempts, including only 2-of-11 from 3-point range. Heritage also missed its only two freethrow tries.
“Coach (Tom) Olsen had his team playing hard, but we just got hot from the get-go and took that same momentum down to the defensive end,” Barnes said. “We got after it like I have never seen us play this year.”
Rogers also played well offensively, hitting 67 percent from the fl oor.
“This game was by far the best game we have played this year on both ends of thecourt,” said Barnes.
One-And-Ones
The Southside Rebels are 22-2 and are currently the only boys team in either Class 7A or Class 6A with at least 20 wins. … The North Little Rock Lady Charging Wildcats have wrapped up the top seed from the 7A /6A-Central for next week’s state tournament at Rogers Heritage. … The Southside Lady Rebels were 17 of 22 from the freethrow line in Saturday’s 62-42 win against Rogers Heritage. … The Rogers Mountaineers have not allowed any conference team to shoot better than 50 percent from the floor this season with Northside’s 44 percent being the highest. … Fayetteville, Northside, North Little Rock and El Dorado are girls teams in Class 7A and Class 6A with 20 or more wins this season. … Southside currently is two games up on Northside in the loss column, so Friday’s Battle of Rogers Avenue could be for the boys conference championship. … The Rebels and Grizzlies have played 97 times with the Grizzlies holding a 58-39 advantage in the all-time series. … Th e Fayetteville Lady Bulldogs have won 22 straight conference games at home with the current senior class a perfect 20-0 at home in conference games during their career. … Rogers scored one point in overtime on Saturday night, but shut out Springdale to win 42-41. … The Northside Grizzlies have scored 20 or more points in 11 of 48 quarters in conference play.
Girls Player Of The Week
Calli Berna is playing her best basketball at the best time.
Berna scored 22 points on Saturday night in leading the Fayetteville Lady Bulldogs to a 61-44 win against Fort Smith Northside.
With the win, Fayetteville moved into a fi rst-place tie with Northside.
Berna scored 59 points in three victories last week, including 24 on Friday night in a 53-28 win against Bentonville.
“Although she has played great all year, you can really tell she is tuned in,” Fayetteville coach Bobby Smith said. “She was great as a scorer, rebounder, defender, and averaged almost six assists per game as well last week.”
Berna is part of a senior class which is 20-0 at home in conference games. They will try to close out a perfect three-year run at home on Friday against rival Springdale.
Boys Player Of The Week
Josh Anderson of Rogers scored 41 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in three games last week, helping the Mountaineers to two wins.
Anderson was 14 of 27 from the floor in the three games.
“He has struggled a little bit this year off and on, and I think some of that is he got mono right before school started this year,” said Barnes. “I do not think he is totally recovered yet but to his defense he has hustled and worked very hard on his game.”
Anderson scored 19 points in Saturday’s 42-41 overtime win against Springdale.
Sports, Pages 6 on 02/22/2011