ROGERS — Cameron Adams was too much for Rogers High this go around.
Rogers limited Adams to six points in a 43-40 victory last month, but the Fort Smith Southside senior made his first seven shots Tuesday and finished with 17 points as the Rebels defeated the Mounties 47-26 in a 7A-West Conference game in King Arena.
After that first loss, Southside boys basketball coach Charles Cooper showed Adams and Denzel Massey the game film and pointed out that the two 6-foot-5 seniors were outplayed by the Mounties.
Not Tuesday.
Southside (23-3, 11-2) trailed 15-12 early in the second quarter, but Adams scored six straight points to give the Rebels the lead for good with under one minute left in the first half.
Massey then opened the second half with consecutive layups, and Adams scored six more points in the paint as Southside pulled away.
“They did a good job of shutting Cameron and Denzel down the first time,” Cooper said. “I showed them the film and told them they got outworked. Sometimes the truth hurts.”
Rogers (15-10, 6-6) managed just three field goals in the second half and finished shooting 10 of 34 from the field. The Mounties also had 17 turnovers.
“(I’m) really disappointed they got fast-break points against our defense,” Rogers coach Marty Barnes said. “That hurt us. We only scored 11 points the last 21 minutes of the game. Northside played great defense, but we settled too much on the perimeter game instead of posting up inside.
“I’m disappointed in some ways because we didn’t compete.”
Graham Parker led Rogers with eight points, but leading scorer Josh Anderson was held scoreless by the Rebels.
“It was a great defensive effort on our kids part,” Cooper said. “We had a tough loss (Monday to Bentonville) and the kids took it personally. We responded and came back and played well.”
Rogers junior Nathan Musso suffered a possible high ankle sprain and will likely miss the Mounties’ final two regular season games at Springdale Har-Ber on Thursday and at Bentonville on Friday.
“You won’t see him, if you see him, until the state tournament,” Barnes said.
Rogers won the junior varsity game 63-39. Trevor Hampton led Rogers with 15 points, while Zach Jones added 14.