Lady Wildcats Survive

Har-Ber Wins Sluggish Game Against Fayetteville

Tayleah Neal, center, of Springdale Har-Ber High School pushes past Alexa Howard, left, and Vanessa Matlock, both of Fayetteville High School, for a layup in the second half of the game Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013 at Bulldog Arena in Fayetteville. The Lady Wildcats of Har-Ber beat the Lady Bulldogs, 43-28.

Tayleah Neal, center, of Springdale Har-Ber High School pushes past Alexa Howard, left, and Vanessa Matlock, both of Fayetteville High School, for a layup in the second half of the game Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013 at Bulldog Arena in Fayetteville. The Lady Wildcats of Har-Ber beat the Lady Bulldogs, 43-28.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

— Springdale Har-Ber didn’t do anything special on Senior Night except survive.

That was obvious at Wildcat Arena, where Har-Ber outlasted Fayetteville, 43-38, Tuesday in 7A/6A- West Conference play. Sophomore Bailey Schalk scored 14 points for Har-Ber (18-10, 9-4), which has won five of its past six games.

Sophomore Lauren Schuldt finished with nine points to lead Fayetteville before she fouled out early in the fourth quarter.

Har-Ber played one of its best games last month in a 43-28 victory at Fayette- ville. But the Lady Wildcats were only able to slip by in the rematch after making just 10-of-37 shots from the floor, including 0-for-4 on 3-pointers. Har-Ber stayed ahead by making 25-of-40 free throws.

“It was an ugly win, but we’ll take it at this point,” Har-Ber coach Sandy Wright. “We got to the line a bunch, but we’ve got to do a better job once we get there.”

The victory kept Har-Ber in a tie for second place in the conference with Rogers High. Those teams will play at Rogers on Friday to end the regular season.

Fayetteville (11-15, 7-6) made only one less field goal than Har-Ber, but the Lady Bulldogs were just 9-of-18 from the line. Fayette- ville kept the game close but lost some offensive fire- power when Schuldt fouled out early in the fourth quarter. Schuldt did not score in the second half after scoring nine by halftime.

“Lauren bothers people on defense with her length and she can score pretty well,” Fayetteville coach Vic Rimmer said. “So, when she fouled out, that hurt us. But we put them on the free- throw line 40 times and that’s a lot.”

Both teams were stagnant offensively in the first half except for the two sophomores, Schalk and Schuldt. Schalk had 10 points at half- time and seven after one quarter, when the Har-Ber led 13-7. Schuldt had nine points at halftime, including two free throws to pull Fayetteville to within 19-17 after two quarters.

Har-Ber held an early 15-7 lead before Fayetteville made a move when someone other than Schuldt made a basket. Catara Robinson scored on a drive inside before Alexa Howard contributed a three- point play to cut the Har- Ber lead to 19-15. Schuldt then followed with two free throws to get the Lady Bull- dogs to within 19-17.

Fayetteville got to within 39-34 behind the play of Sydney Crockett, who made two driving baskets. But Har-Ber made just enough free throws to keep the lead including eight by Caylee Wright, who scored all of her points from the line.

•••

Fayetteville 7 10 7 14 — 38

Springdale Har-Ber 13 6 12 12 — 43

FAYETTEVILLE (11-15, 7-6): Schuldt 9, Crockett 7, Robinson 6, Breden 4, Edie 3, Brewer 3, Howard 3, Austin 3. SPRINGDALE HAR-BER (18-10, 9-4): Schalk 14, Weber 11, Wright 8, Neal 8, Gray 1, Montgomery 1.