MOUNTAIN HOME — Senior guard McKinzie James sank two free throws with no time remaining to lift Rogers High to a 45-43 win over 7A/6A-West Conference rival Fayetteville in the late game Thursday night of the 1st Arkansas Bail Bonds Tournament.
The Lady Mounties let an 11-point fourth-quarter lead slip away from them, and the Lady Bulldogs scored 10 straight points in just under three minutes to take a 43-41 lead on a 12-foot jumper by Alexa Howard with one minute left.
Rogers (8-3) pulled even at 43-43, ending a near 5-minute scoring drought when James stuck back a missed shot by Taylor Strickland with 25 seconds remaining. Fayetteville (4-7) called a timeout with 14.3 seconds left, and with time winding down, Jaylah Prude drove to the basket.
She missed the layup attempt, and in the scramble for the ball, James secured the rebound and Fayetteville's Vanessa Matlock was whistled for a reach-in foul just as the final buzzer sounded.
James then stepped and hit both free throws to give Rogers the victory.
“We were just lucky to get the win,” Rogers girls basketball coach coach Preston Early. “We had put ourselves in a position to let it slip through our fingers, and it almost did. We had six or seven horrible possessions right in a row, and we were just self-destructing.
“Then we finally had the poise to get that score to tie it. And what we told them in that last timeout was to just defend this play, keep your man in front of you, block out and communicate. Because we were sound defensively, we put ourselves in a position to get fouled.”
Rogers led 20-17 at halftime, but outscored Fayetteville 17-11 in the third quarter, leading by as many as 11 points before taking a 37-28 lead into the fourth. The Lady Mounties regained their 11-point advantage on a long jumper by Callie King to make it 39-28.
Three straight steals by Aubrey Edie off Fayetteville's full-court press led to three layups by the Lady Bulldogs, the last by Sydney Crockett that knotted the score at 41-41 with 1:32 remaining. On its next possession, the Lady Mounties finally broke the pressure, but turned the ball over with 1:11 left.
Eleven seconds later, Howard gave Fayetteville its first lead of the contest at 43-41.
“I thought our effort was fantastic,” Fayetteville coach Vic Rimmer said. “We have struggled shooting the ball all year, and we still did tonight. We know that and that's who we are. We overcome that by playing really tough, hard-nose defense.
“I thought we guarded really well tonight and we gave ourselves a chance to win it, and that's all we can ask for.”
Because of heavy snowfall in Central and Northeast Arkansas, four teams couldn’t make the tournament, which reduced it to a four-team, round-robin format. In Thursday's early game, Greenwood defeated Mountain Home 62-47.
Rogers plays Greenwood at 5:30 p.m. today, and Fayetteville takes on host Mountain Home at 8:30 p.m. On Saturday, Fayetteville faces Greenwood at 10 a.m., and Mountain Home plays Rogers at 2:30 p.m.
ROGERS HIGH 45, FAYETTEVILLE 43
Fayetteville 7 10 11 15 — 43
Rogers 9 11 17 8 — 45
Fayetteville (4-7): Howard 14, Schuldt 10, Prude 7, Edie 5, Matlock 2, Crockett 2, Austin 2, Breden 1.
Rogers (8-3): Strickland 14, Warren 11, Hawley 6, Ganoung 6, James 6, King 2.