ROGERS — Springdale Har-Ber broke an 11-game losing streak to Rogers High and the reward was a big one for the Lady Wildcats.
Bailey Schalk hit a back door layup with three seconds left to give Har-Ber a 42-40 victory over the Lady Mounties that gives them a No. 2 seed in the 7A/6A-West Conference and a first-round bye to next week’s Class 7A State Tournament.
“We work on that play in practice and I am glad Bailey made that shot,” Har-Ber girls basketball coach Sandy Wright said. “It was clutch. I am just really proud of all the players stepping up.”
Har-Ber will face the winner of Thursday’s game between Bryant and the No. 3 seed from the 7A Central Conference on Friday at 8:30 p.m. at Fayetteville.
Rogers will be the No. 3 seed and play Fort Smith Southside at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Rogers tied the game at 40-40 on a free throw by McKinzie James with just over two minutes left in the game and the Lady Mounties missed a chance to take the lead with 40 seconds left.
Har-Ber then ran the clock down to under 10 seconds before executing the final play which had Schalk alone under the basket.
“We botched the coverage on that final play, but give credit to Har-Ber for executing at the end,” Rogers coach Preston Early said.
Schalk finished with 10 points, including eight in the second half. Haley McCarver added seven for the Lady Wildcats (19-10, 10-4).
“I thought about calling timeout, but that would give Rogers time to set up a defense,” Wright said. “We practice that play, and we have executed that play. We were fortunate that it worked and it went in.”
Taylor Strickland finished with 21 points for Rogers (18-10, 9-5) but the Lady Mounties were just 12-of-22 from the free throw line. They were just 4-of-8 from the line in the final period while missing the front end of two 1-and-1 chances.
Early said he was surprised with the Lady Mounties poor effort at the line.
“We emphasize free throws in practice, and it is something we have done well,” Early said. “We just missed them. We looked tight. That was the game right there.”
SPRINGDALE HAR-BER 42, ROGERS HIGH 40
Har-Ber 9 11 9 13 — 42
Rogers 11 8 10 11 — 40
Har-Ber (19-10, 10-4)): Strickland 21, James 9, Hawley 6, Ganoung 4.
Rogers (18-10, 9-5): Schalk 10, McCarver 7, Neal 6, Montgomery 6, Wright 5, Redmond 3, Weber 3, Stephens 2.