ROGERS — Rogers picked up the pace Saturday afternoon and grabbed a much-needed victory to close play in the Arvest Hoopfest.
Guards Keifer Holt and Hunter Hill combined for 40 points as the Mounties snapped a four-game losing streak and ran past Hot Springs 66-54 in a consolation game at Rogers Heritage’s War Eagle Arena.
Prep Basketball
Nonconference
ROGERS 66, HOT SPRINGS 54
Hot Springs 16 10 15 13 — 54
Rogers 14 22 19 11 — 66
Hot Springs (1-7): Nero 18, Blackmon 16, Goffigan 7, Coleman 6, Morrow 2, Counts 2, Thomas 2, Stringer 1.
Rogers (3-5): Holt 21, Hill 19, Jones 11, Street 7, Gentz 3, Quillen 2, Adams 2, Smith 1.
Rogers coach Wayne Herren likes to play at a faster pace, but admitted the last couple of weeks he’s gone conservative. That changed on Saturday and so did the Mounties’ fortunes.
Hot Springs (1-7) led 18-14 early in the second quarter when Rogers turned up the defensive pressure, which fueled a 15-1 run that turned a four-point deficit into 29-19 lead.
“I told our guys we’re not looking at the scoreboard today,” Herren said. “We’re gonna get out and press and run and do some things the way we want to play and I think that helped us.
“What I didn’t like before is we had guys in a situation where if they made a mistake they felt like it cost us the ballgame. We had a lot of errors today but we also had a lot of opportunities.”
Holt and Hill keyed the run combining for 12 points. The Mounties (3-5) also hit four 3-point shots in the flurry, including two off of fast breaks.
Herren said he’s OK with shooting the three in transition and Hill is one who definitely has the green light.
“We call that primary break, shooting off one or two passes,” Herren said. “We just have to get the ball in the hands of our shooters.”
Hill, a 5-9 junior, scored all 19 of his points in the first half to give Rogers a 36-26 lead at the intermission.
Holt kept the Mounties in front in the second half, scoring 17 of his game-high 21 points in the final two quarters. Zach Jones chipped in 11. Juwan Nero finished with a team-high 18 points for Hot Springs, which got no closer than 10 points in the second half.
Herren said a victory was huge for the Mounties on Saturday.
“We’re looking for positives,” Herren said. “We needed to get out of here with a little momentum because we’ve got another war Tuesday night. We’ve got Conway at home.”
Pea Ridge 69, Fort Smith Southside 44
Jacob Hall and Levi Pitts poured in a game-high 19 points apiece to help Pea Ridge claim fifth place in the tournament.
Hall canned a pair of 3-pointers to start the second half to give Class 4A Pea Ridge (7-1) a 40-22 lead against the 7A Rebels (3-5). Southside got no closer than 11 the rest of the way.
Nick DeLeon was also in double figures with 10 for Pea Ridge, which went 2-1 in the tournament. Clayton Pankey led Southside with 14.