Siloam Springs senior Payton Henson sure made his lone season of playing in the 7A/6A-West Conference was a memorable one.

Henson scored 44 points on Friday night in the Panthers' 63-53 win against Rogers Heritage, helping Siloam Springs to finish the regular season 19-6 overall and 9-5 in its inaugural season in the conference.

He wrapped up the conference's scoring title with a whopping 370 points in 14 conference games, which ranks him second all-time in boys' conference history behind only Fayetteville's Ronnie Brewer, who scored 390 points in 2003.

Henson actually passed Brewer into second place on Friday as well with his 44-point effort. Brewer, as a junior in 2002, scored 364 points.

He is already the all-time leading scorer in team history with 2,189 points, and he will get an opportunity to add to his totals in the Class 6A state tournament in Greenwood this week.

Siloam Springs opens the state tournament at 5:30 p.m. today against Russellville.

Rogers High senior Taylor Strickland scored 21 points in Friday's 42-40 loss to Springdale Har-Ber and scored 43 points last week.

Strickland passed Fort Smith Southside's Tara Treat into third place all-time for career scoring in conference games. Strickland finished conference play with 775 points in 42 league games during her career.

Only Southside's Chelsea Jones, who scored 871 points in 44 career games, and Springdale's Krista Sanchez, who scored 796 points in 42 conference games stands ahead of Strickland. Jones benefitted from playing 14 conference games in 2006 when Har-Ber joined the conference for a nine-team conference in between re-alignment years.

Strickland won the conference's scoring title with 294 points in 14 conference games this season.

Earlier, she became the all-time leading scorer in school history when she passed Morgan Hook, who scored 1,516 points in her career before going on to play collegiately at Oklahoma. Strickland has scored 1,576 points in her three-year career and will get an opportunity to add to that in this week's Class 7A state tournament.

Rogers, the third seed from the conference, will play Cabot at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.

7A INTERESTING

Fayetteville and Springdale High earned the top two seeds from the 7A-West in this week's state tournament in boys' play, while Bentonville and Har-Ber earned the top two spots in the girls state tournament.

North Little Rock and former 7A-West foe Fort Smith Northide earned the top two spots in the boys state tournament this week from the 7A-Central, while Little Rock Central and Northside are the top two seeds in the girls state tournament.

Along with earning the top two seeds comes a first-round bye since 12 of the 16 teams in 7A go to the state tournament, which means those teams don't play until Thursday or Friday. Springdale does not play until 8:30 p.m. Friday.

Most coaches don't favor a bye.

“No, not at all,” Rogers girls coach Preston Early said. “I've had it three times. It's tough to sit around until Friday and play. If I had my preference I would rather start the tournament on Wednesday and go.”

STRICKLAND MOVES UP

The Bentonville Lady Tigers won their first conference championship since being elevated to the state's largest classification in 1989 with a sparkling 13-1 mark and are 25-2.

They will play the winner of the first-round game between Fayetteville and North Little Rock at 4 p.m. Thursday. If the Lady Tigers win that one, then former 7A-West foe Northside awaits in the semifinals on Saturday.

The surging Har-Ber Lady Wildcats have won five straight and won the battle for second place, knocking off Rogers and Heritage. They will play the winner of the first-round game between West Memphis and Bryant at 7 p.m. Friday. If the Lady Wildcats win that one, they will advance to the semifinals on Saturday.

The Fayetteville Bulldogs are on a collision course against Northside in Saturday's semifinal game.

A Springdale win on Friday likely sets up a clash with tournament favorite North Little Rock in Saturday's semifinal.

6A UNIQUE

Siloam Springs earned the second seed from the 6A-South, which is where the Panthers are placed for seeding purposes for the boys' state tournament.

All 16 teams in Class 6A make it to the state tournament, which means top seeds are pitted against bottom seeds in first-round games.

That creates some mighty mismatches. For example, Little Hall Rock earned the top seed in the girls state tournament and will play Little Rock Fair. Hall is 26-2 and a favorite to win the state championship. Fair is 0-21 and lost to Hall 88-0 in November in a nonconference game.

Siloam Springs plays Russellville in the first round. A win there will pit Henson and his Panthers against Little Rock Parkview, which features the guard tandem of Anton Beard and I.J. Ready. Beard is headed to Mississippi State and Ready just recently decommitted from Missouri to open up his recruiting again.

The Siloam Springs Lady Panthers will be very familiar with their first-round opponent in the state tournament. They play Greenwood at 1 p.m. Thursday.

Siloam Springs and Greenwood are playing in their inaugural seasons in 6A after being elevated from the 5A-West. Siloam Springs is the fifth seed out of the 6A-South, while Greenwood is the fourth seed from the 6A-East, which is where teams that played in the 7A/6A-Central are placed for seeding purposes. Greenwood finished conference play 7-7, but those losses were two each to Little Rock Hall, Little Rock Parkview, and Northside and one at Southside.

The 6A state tournament features two players selected to the McDonalds All-American game in Bobby Portis and Tyler Scaife, both from Hall.

Portis will be an Arkansas Razorback while Scaife will play for the Rutger Lady Scarlet Knights.