Rogers High Teams On Roll

LADY MOUNTIES WIN FIVE GAMES IN EIGHT DAYS; MOUNTIES WIN FOUR OF LAST FIVE

— The Rogers High boys and girls basketball teams are playing their best basketball of the year at the right time.

The Lady Mounties won five games in eight days to gain momentum heading into next week’s Class 7A State Tournament. Before that streak, the Lady Mounties had lost five straight games.

The Mounties have found some consistency on offense and they have won four of their last five going into the state tournament. Three of the Mounties wins in league play came against the three teams - Fort Smith Northside, Fort Smith Southside and Springdale High - ranked ahead of them in the standings. All three wins also came on the road.

PLAYS OF THE WEEK: Sophomore Trevor Hampton hit two consecutive 3-pointers against Bentonville that pushed the Mounties to a 15-8 lead at the end of the first quarter. Rogers won the game 51-34

Lydia Wilkerson hit three 3-pointers the first three minutes of the game against Fort Smith Southside as Rogers jumped to a 14-7 lead in a 68-68-50 victory over the Lady Rebels. Wilkerson was 4 of 6 on 3-pointers and finished with 14 points, which was her best effort in a conference game.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK: Taylor Strickland averaged 16.3 points in the Lady Mounties three victories last week and the sophomore has scored 11 or more points in 11 conference games.

Mounties senior Grahamaveraged 15 pointsa game in the two victories last week. Since being held scoreless in a double overtime loss to Fayetteville, Parker has been in double figures in six of the Mounties last seven games.

NOTABLE: Mounties coach Marty Barnes has taken teams to the state tournament in 15 of his 18 seasons as a coach in the 7A-West.

Barnes, who coached 11 years at Russellville, has been at Rogers for seven seasons and has six postseason appearances … Barnes has never had a losingconference record in 18 years as a high school coach.

“We ralliedat the right time. We kept running our stuff and getting the looks, and our kids did a great job of next play offense. They didn’t let some earlier misses get in their head, and you saw some players playing with confidence down the stretch.”The LadyMounties will face No. 6 seed Bryant at 1 p.m. Thursday in the first round of the state tournament.

The Mounties begin state tournament play Wednesday as the No. 4 seed.

News, Pages 8 on 02/27/2011

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