Fayetteville Rolls Past Rogers High

Fayetteville’s Manuale Watkins, center, grabs a rebound over Rogers’ Xavier Smith, right, and Jake Killingsworth during Friday’s game at King Arena in Rogers.
Fayetteville’s Manuale Watkins, center, grabs a rebound over Rogers’ Xavier Smith, right, and Jake Killingsworth during Friday’s game at King Arena in Rogers.

— As the first half was coming to an end, Fayetteville senior Tyler McCullough urged the Bulldogs reserves assembled by the scorer’s table in KIng Arena to “keep it up.”

It was the second time the Fayetteville reserves hit the floor because McCullough and the rest of the Bulldogs starters took care of business early and often against Rogers High on Friday.

Fayetteville scored the game’s first 20 points and never looked back in posting a 73-23 victory over the Mounties. Fayetteville took a 62-21 lead to the final period after leading 39-8 at halftime.

“That is by far the best basketball team that we have played this year,” Rogers coach Wayne Herren said. “Fayetteville will have a very good shot to win the whole thing. I thought we played tentative and scared in the first half.”

Ten different Fayetteville players scored with Manuale Watkins leading the way with 20 points. Watkins was 7-of-10 from the field. Jawan Smith added 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting.

“This was a good night for us,” Fayetteville coach Kyle Adams said. “We competed very hard. We are building and we are a work in progress. Real pleased with the effort.”

Adams credited the Fayetteville defense for sparking the offense. The Bulldogs scored 20 points off 17 Rogers turnovers, most in the first 16 minutes of the game.

“We got some easy baskets off our defense tonight,” Adams said. “We are a matchup problem for a lot of teams because of our size.”

Rogers’ first basket came with just 20 seconds left in the first period when Hunter Hill hit a 3-pointer and the junior led Rogers with eight points.

Fayetteville (13-3, 3-0) stays atop the 7A/6A-West Conference standings while Rogers (6-10, 0-3) remains winless heading to Bentonville Tuesday.

Fayetteville won the junior varsity game 50-41. Luke Renner scored 23 points for the Bulldogs. Zach Street led Rogers with 14 points.

FAYETTEVILLE 73, ROGERS HIGH 23

Fayetteville 20 19 23 11 — 73

Rogers 3 5 13 2 — 23

Fayetteville (13-3, 3-0): Watkins 20, Smith 14, Gooderl 9, Waitsman 8, Carney 6, McCullough 4, Williamson 4, Bond 4, Adams 3, Conley 1.

Rogers (6-10, 0-3): H. Hill 8, Gentz 4, Killingsworth 3, R. Hill 2, Holt 2, Jones 2, Adams 2.

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