Winter storm Cleon has left a big hole in the basketball schedules at Rogers High and Rogers Heritage.
The winter weather forced the cancellation of the Great 8 Tournament at Heritage, and both the Lady War Eagles and Lady Mounties lost three games each as a result.
Heritage coach Kevin Ramey said the tournament committee tried all sorts of different scenarios from moving up the start a day to trying to play early next week or even after Christmas. But nothing seemed to work.
“We had teams like (Fort Smith) Southside and Greenwood, who could go home, but then Camdenton (Mo.) and Beebe would not,” Ramey said. “We fi nally decided it just wasn’t feasible.”
Ramey’s Lady War Eagles (0-3) will now have a 17-day gap between games thanks to the cancellation of the Great 8 event. They aren’t scheduled to play again until Thursday when they play Sand Springs, Okla., in a tournament in Tahlequah, Okla.
Ramey said his team was excited to get back on the floor for a game in the Great 8 since they already had more than a week off since a 45-41 loss at Gentry on Nov. 26.
“We had some time to get on the practice floor and re-evaluate where we’re at as a team,” Ramey said. “We were looking forward to it. We need to get games under our belt. We feel like we made a jump in execution. We were looking forward to see if we’d had taken that step forward. Now, we’ll have to wait to see.”
Senior Hanna Ricker has shown well in practice over the past week, Ramey said. This could lead to a lineup change since Heritage has used a four-guard lineup for their first four games. Instead, Ramey may opt for a more conventional two-post lineup in order to help a rebounding defi ciency.
One benefit of the cancellation is that senior Gina Britton, one of only two Heritage players with signifi cant varsity experience, has time to recover from a concussion. Britton would have likely missed all three games in the Great 8 and could be ready for next week’s tournament in Tahlequah, Ramey said.
Heritage boys basketball coach Tom Olsen is still hopeful his War Eagles (3-1) will be able to play in the finals of the Carthage (Mo.) Invitational at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
Olsen said tournament officials are taking a “wait and see” approach. Heritage will face Springfield (Mo.) Central, which rallied from a 10-point halftime defi cit to defeat Joplin, Mo., 75-51 in the other semifi nal Wednesday.
Top-seeded Heritage rallied to defeat Seneca, Mo., 62-59, despite trailing for most of the game.
The Lady Mounties (1-1) lost three games with the cancellation of the Great 8 and last played Nov. 26. Rogers will return to action Thursday when they play Nixa, Mo., in the fi rst round of the Springfield (Mo.) Kickapoo Invitational. A win in the first round could set up a game with Springfield Parkview, which is led by Missouri State signee Aubrey Buckley.
The Mounties (1-2) are scheduled to play Siloam Springs at the Republic, Mo., tourney at 5:30 p.m. today, but coach Wayne Herren expects that game to be pushed back until Saturday or canceled altogether. Rogers lost 61-58 to Rogersville, Mo., on a last second 3-pointer in the fi rst round Tuesday despite 23 points from senior Hunter Hill.
“Hopefully, we will get a game in on Saturday,” Herren said. “At least we did get one game in.”
If the Mounties don’t play again this weekend, they will return to action Thursday when they play Pea Ridge in the first round of the Arvest Hoopfest at Rogers High.
Bentonville’s boys also suffered the loss of two games this week when Van Buren elected to cancel the remainder of its Citizens Bank Classic. The Tigers (2-0) were supposed to play Charleston in a semifinal game Thursday night, then play again in either the championship game or the third-place game Saturday.
Bentonville won’t play again until Tuesday at home against Gravette, the Tigers’ final home game until its game against Christian Brothers (Mo.) in St. Louis.
“I definitely don’t like it,” Bentonville coach Jason McMahan said. “We have a young team and hadn’t played together that long. We’re trying to mesh together, and the best way to do that is to play games.
“This is a setback, for sure. There’s no rhythm in our schedule because of this.”
Springdale High lost three games when the Bank of Fayetteville Bulldog Classic was cancelled. But the Bulldogs will get back into action early next week when they host Fort Smith Northside in a Tuesday home nonconference matchup featuring two of the better teams in the state.
Second-round play in the Greenland Invitational was canceled Thursday and tentatively pushed back to today. The tournament could also resume Saturday, weather permitting, Greenland coach Jared Gobel said.
“We’re just going to play it by ear,” Gobel said.