SPRINGDALE — Taylor Strickland pounded the ball down the right side of the court, powering her way to the goal, but the Rogers senior slammed into a Shiloh Christian defender and was whistled for a charging foul midway through the fourth quarter.
Strickland just smiled and trotted to the bench. After all, she had already scored 33 points Friday in Rogers’ 57-41 nonconference victory over Shiloh Christian.
“She’s just so versatile and does a lot of things for us,” Rogers Coach Preston Early said. “She kept us in it in the first half. We could not get a handle on them defensively, but she kept us in it.”
Rogers (7-2) finally seized control of the game in the third quarter, outscoring Shiloh Christian 21-9. Strickland scored 10 of her game-high 33 in the third quarter, and her three-point play with 1.6 seconds left in the quarter gave the Lady Mounties a 48-36 lead.
Lauren Roth led Shiloh Christian (4-5) with 17 points. Roth hit a pair of three-pointers in the first quarter to help the Lady Saints stay in the game, trailing just 16-14 after one quarter.
Shiloh Christian fought back to tie the score at 27-27 going into halftime as Roth scored eight points.
Senior MacKinzie James added 10 points for Rogers.
Early said his team has shown a lot of improvement since the start of the season, especially the chemistry of the team.
Richelle Cooper, a 6-3 sophomore for Shiloh Christian, scored 12 points before fouling out in the fourth quarter.
Sports, Pages 24 on 12/15/2012