MOUNTAIN HOME — Rogers High girls basketball coach probably gave one of the longest post game speeches in his long career at the school Saturday.
That is not good news as struggling Rogers (8-5) prepares for the 7A/6A-West Conference season.
In what is becoming the norm, Rogers gave away another game on the final day of the 1st Arkansas Bail Bonds Basketball Tournament at Mountain Home High School.
Rogers saw an 11-point lead evaporate in the last 6 minutes, 50 seconds as Mountain Home used a closing 18-4 run to post a 44-38 victory over the Lady Mounties.
“We just gave it away, and that is what I told them,” Lady Mounties coach Preston Early said. “It’s frustrating, it’s disappointing. It’s a total lack of mental toughness. It’s a low level of basketball IQ as we are trying to learn the game and execute. We just do things at such lower level of thinking that we have to get better. I have to get better; they have to play better.”
Rogers didn’t score the final three minutes of the game as they went 0-for-6 from the field the final two minutes of the game. Rogers led 26-16 at halftime, and a layup by Taylor Strickland early in the fourth period gave them a 34-25 lead.
But Rogers showed no fight the rest of the way.
Early was especially frustrated Mountain Home seemed to come up with just about every loose ball while doing a better job on the boards and getting to the free throw line.
“We did so many things to make ourselves vulnerable,” Early said. “That has been our story the last two months.”
Mountain Home (10-3) defeated Rogers 51-47 on Dec. 21, and that is one of several games Early said the Lady Mounties should have won.
“We feel that of our five losses, we have squandered four of them,” Early said. “This was another example of it. We are 8-5 and we shouldn’t be satisfied with that. We are underperforming.
“We are capable of beating anyone in our league, but anybody in our league can certainly beat us.”
Strickland finished with 19 points while McKinzie James had 12. Taylor Williams led the Lady Bombers with 14 points while Katie Kaplan added 12.
“When we started playing with intensity in the fourth period, that made a big difference,” Mountain Home coach Dell Leonard said.
MOUNTAIN HOME 44, ROGERS HIGH 38
Rogers 13 13 3 9 — 38
Mountain Home 5 11 7 21 — 44
Rogers (8-5): Strickland 19, James 9, Ganoung 3, Warren 2, Hawley 2.
Mountain Home (10-3): Williams 14, Kapler 12, T. Jones 5, S. Jones 5, Foreman 3, Leonard 3, Arms 2.