Bentonville recorded two 7A/6A-West sweeps last week, and two of those responsible are this week’s conference Players of the Week.
Taylor Lee scored 16 points in Bentonville's 55-45 win against Springdale Har-Ber on Tuesday, and followed it up with 14 points in a 39-37 win against Rogers Heritage on Friday.
She is averaging 13.2 points per conference game to lead the team in scoring.
Lee has received plenty of support. She is one of five players who has scored in double-digits for the Lady Tigers in conference games. Brooke Mabeus, Kindal Coleman, Rashaun Casey and Julia Garrard have all contirbuted offensively. Jamayne Potts has scored nine points twice this season, once off the bench in a win against Siloam Springs in January and then on Friday in a start against Heritage when she added five rebounds and three assists.
Garrard, while not a big scorer, provides a necessary defensive presence for the league-leading Lady Tigers. In last week's victories, she had 17 rebounds and eight blocked shots combined. In Friday's key win against Heritage, she blocked two shots in the waning seconds to preserve the win.
Last week's wins, coupled with Fayetteville's win over Rogers, put Bentonville up by two games with four games left to go and earns the Lady Tigers their second straight 20-win season for the first time in school history.
Smith scored 53 points in two wins last week for the Tigers. He started the week with 23 points in Bentonville's 61-51 win against Har-Ber, and added 30 points on Friday in a 55-48 win against Heritage.
Smith is second in the league in scoring with 220 points in 10 conference games. In 38 career conference games, Smith has scored 643 points.
Bentonville is locked in a three-way tie for second in the conference with Siloam Springs and Springdale High, all at 7-3.
Only Springdale matters, though, for playoff seedings since Siloam Springs is classified as Class 6A. Springdale currently has more playoff points than Bentonville, but that will be decided on the court on Feb. 19 at Springdale.
No Contest
The Van Buren Pointers pleaded no contest last week against the Fayetteville Bulldogs.
After playing in a normal manner against Fayetteville last month and losing 68-30, veteran Van Buren coach Randy Loyd decided to take the air out of the ball last Monday, like Eddie Sutton and the four-corner offense of the 1980s.
“I haven’t seen it done in a long time, but why not?” Loyd said. “That's the best team I've coached against in 30 years. I'm just telling you, every position on the floor and through their bench; they're the most talented team I've coached against. I feel a lot better losing by 12 than by 38 at our place. That's what we had to do to give ourselves a chance to win.”
Fayetteville coach Kyle Adams wasn't upset at all by Van Buren's tactic. In fact, he praised the Pointers' effort in executing their strategy.
“Randy's a great coach,” Adams said. “He's going to put his kids in the best position to win. I thought he did that. Randy did a good job with his kids. He kept them in the ball game a long time. Except for a couple of possessions, they're right there.”
Fayetteville won, 35-23, but in a game that was odd to watch especially the third quarter which was played to a 0-0 tie.
“No, I haven't seen that,” Loyd said. “Back when I was playing and watching at Southside, Coach (Ronnie) Bateman did this against some of the Conway teams. I've seen 4-2, or 2-2, but not 0-0.”
At A Glance
That Figures
Following are some interesting stats from Fayetteville's 35-23 win against Van Buren, which was a game for the ages:
24 — field goal attempts by Fayetteville
23 — free throw attempts by Fayetteville
0 — points scored by Van Buren and Fayetteville in third quarter
1 — total shots taken in third quarter, which was by Van Buren past halfcourt at the buzzer
3 — field goals attempted by Van Buren in second half
3 — total field goals scored in second half, including two by Fayetteville
19:28 — time between made field goals by Van Buren from second quarter into fourth quarter
Adams has seen 0-0 quarters before in junior high “but not in high school.”
Van Buren held a 20-13 lead with 3 minutes, 46 seconds left in the first half and was looking for more. Freshman 6-foot-8 post Mitchell Smith missed an easy layup and then fouled in frustration. Manuale Watkins sank two free throws which started a 12-0 run to end the half for a 25-20 lead by the Bulldogs.
In the third quarter, the only shot attempted was a desperation 60-footer at the buzzer after Fayetteville turned the ball over.
“There was nothing else we could do,” Loyd said. “They're 6-11, 6-8, 6-5, 6-4 and we're 6-8 freshman, 6-4 and 5-7 guards.”
Each team committed two turnovers in the quarter so Van Buren had three possessions in the quarter, including the desperation heave. Fayetteville had two possessions and did not attempt a shot.
“We haven't seen anything like that,” Adams said. “We've had teams try to hold it on us, but once we score we're able to pick it up fullcourt. His kids handled the pressure a lot better. That was the difference. He wanted to do it down at their place, but not that much.”
The Pointers were content to just hold the ball for long stretches of time without even dribbling.
“He let us hold it, so we're going to hold it,” Loyd said. “Then he wants to hold it, I'm going to let him hold it. We're going to hope we get two or three breaks late in the game, down five, make a couple of baskets and maybe win this thing.”
Van Buren's main strategy was to bring Smith, the 6-8 post player out well beyond the top of the key and bring Fayetteville's 6-11 McCullough with him. That opened the lane some for back-door cuts early in the game and a couple of 3-pointers.
“We changed offenses a little bit,” Loyd said. “We knew McCullough wasn't going to come out, and Mitchell is a good enough ball handler and passer that we decided to let him play him. If he didn't come out on him, we were gong to hold it. If he did come out on him, then we were going to go by him some. It worked out.”
Fayetteville took a 28-21 lead with 7:01 left in the game on Watkins' turnaround jumper from the baseline. Watkins put the Bulldogs up 33-21 with a steal and a slam with 1:46 left. Those were the only two field goals of the second half for Fayetteville. The Bulldogs had 10 field goals for the game and hit 15 of 23 from the free throw line.
“Once we got ahead, we still wanted to be aggressive and we'd come trap every once in a while and do something different,” Adams said. “I told them once we get to seven, we're not coming out anymore. Then we were able to make free throws down the stretch to get it past 10. It feels strange. I don't think I subbed until the last 40 seconds, but we didn't have to. Nobody was tired.”
7A/6A-WEST LEADERS
BOYS
TEAM OFFENSE
TEAM G PTS AVG
Fayetteville 10 591 59.1
Bentonville 10 587 58.7
Siloam Springs 10 575 57.5
Springdale High 10 563 56.3
Springdale Har-Ber 10 559 55.9
Van Buren 10 471 47.1
Rogers Heritage 10 418 41.8
Rogers High 10 409 40.9
TEAM DEFENSE
TEAM G PTS AVG
Fayetteville 10 337 33.7
Van Buren 10 487 48.7
Springdale High 10 493 49.3
Bentonville 10 519 51.9
Siloam Springs 10 528 52.8
Rogers High 10 580 58.0
Rogers Heritage 10 591 59.1
Springdale Har-Ber 10 638 63.8
SCORING LEADERS
PLAYER, SCHOOL G PTS AVG
Payton Henson, Siloam Springs 10 249 24.9
Nick Smith, Bentonville 10 220 22.0
Manuale Watkins, Fayetteville 10 149 14.9
Dashaun Stark, Springdale High 10 137 13.7
Alex Scharlou, Springdale High 10 136 13.6
Alex Rice, Springdale Har-Ber 10 123 12.3
Hunter Hill, Rogers High 10 122 12.2
Austin Heard, Bentonville 10 120 12.0
Tereke Eckwood, Springdale High 10 108 10.8
Jawan Smith, Fayetteville 10 100 10.0
Justin Malott, Springdale High 10 100 10.0
Quinton Ray, Van Buren 10 98 9.8
Dylan Gray, Siloam Springs 10 98 9.8
Ryan Pearson, Van Buren 10 97 9.7
Reece Goddard, Siloam Springs 10 97 9.7
Tyler McCullough, Fayetteville 10 96 9.6
Zach Jones, Rogers High 10 91 9.1
Crist Olsen, Rogers Heritage 10 89 8.9
Austin Haggard, Bentonville 10 86 8.6
Caleb Waitsman, Fayetteville 10 85 8.5
Mitchell Smith, Van Buren 10 80 8.0
Nick Pagel, Van Buren 10 76 7.6
Austin Fox, Springdale Har-Ber 10 75 7.5
Hayden Greenway, Rogers Heritage 10 74 7.4
Jason Harms, Van Buren 10 69 6.9
Keifer Holt, Rogers High 10 66 6.6
Luke Fryauf, Rogers Heritage 10 62 6.2
Ricky Jones, Springdale Har-Ber 10 62 6.2
Brandon Buccheri, Springdale Har-Ber 10 60 6.0
Tyler Tutt, Springdale High 10 55 5.5
Aaron Ward, Bentonville 10 53 5.3
Xavier Thomas, Rogers Heritage 10 51 5.1
Cameron Paschke, Fayetteville 10 48 4.8
Josiah Wymer, Springdale High 10 46 4.6
GIRLS
TEAM OFFENSE
TEAM G PTS AVG
Bentonville 10 505 50.5
Springdale Har-Ber 10 499 49.9
Rogers High 10 497 49.7
Siloam Springs 10 488 48.8
Rogers Heritage 10 488 48.8
Fayetteville 10 431 43.1
Springdale High 10 424 42.4
Van Buren 10 352 35.2
TEAM DEFENSE
TEAM G PTS AVG
Bentonville 10 402 40.2
Fayetteville 10 410 41.0
Rogers Heritage 10 414 41.4
Rogers High 10 432 43.2
Springdale Har-Ber 10 459 45.9
Springdale High 10 513 51.3
Siloam Springs 10 519 51.9
Van Buren 10 535 53.5
SCORING LEADERS
PLAYER, SCHOOL G PTS AVG
Taylor Strickland, Rogers High 10 217 21.7
Taylor Lee, Bentonville 10 132 13.2
Brittany Jurgens, Springdale High 10 126 12.6
Morgan Miller, Siloam Springs 10 122 12.2
Kaylee Sheppard, Van Buren 10 121 12.1
Ashley Ward, Rogers Heritage 10 120 12.0
Brittany Ward, Rogers Heritage 10 119 11.9
Maria Santillana, Van Buren 10 116 11.6
Baily Cameron, Siloam Springs 10 107 10.7
Bailey Schalk, Springdale Har-Ber 10 96 9.6
Emilie Jobst, Rogers Heritage 10 92 9.2
Javunda Daniels, Springdale High 10 86 8.6
Caylee Wright, Springdale Har-Ber 10 86 8.6
Tayleah Neal, Springdale Har-Ber 10 83 8.3
McKinzie James, Rogers High 10 79 7.9
Kindal Coleman, Bentonville 10 77 7.7
Rashaun Casey, Bentonville 10 76 7.6
Aubrey Edie, Fayetteville 10 75 7.5
Ellen Lundy, Rogers Heritage 10 74 7.4
Bailey Owens, Siloam Springs 10 73 7.3
Mayse Pippin, Siloam Springs 10 73 7.3
Karen Perez, Springdale High 10 72 7.2
Samantha Weber, Springdale Har-Ber 10 64 6.4
Julia Garrard, Bentonville 10 62 6.2
Cassandra Trexler, Rogers High 10 56 5.6
Brooke Mabeus, Bentonville 10 51 5.1
Marleeya Montgomery, Springdale Har-Ber 10 50 5.0
Haley McCarver, Springdale Har-Ber 10 47 4.7
Hannah Hawley, Rogers High 10 47 4.7