Lady Tigers Too Much For Lady War Eagles

Brooke Mabeus, right, of Bentonville heads toward the basket Friday as Rogers Heritage’s Ellen Lundy tries to defend at Rogers Heritage in Rogers.
Brooke Mabeus, right, of Bentonville heads toward the basket Friday as Rogers Heritage’s Ellen Lundy tries to defend at Rogers Heritage in Rogers.

— If it was a prize fight, Bentonville would have won by knockout.

Instead, the Lady Tigers are now all alone atop the 7A/6A-West Conference girls basketball standings after a win over Rogers Heritage that was much more lopsided than the 57-48 final score Friday night.

Bentonville (15-1, 3-0 7A/6A-West) sent Heritage back on its heels early, leading 19-1 after a quarter and the Lady War Eagles never really recovered in a battle of co-league leaders.

BENTONVILLE 57, ROGERS HERITAGE 48

Bentonville 19 13 17 8 — 57

Heritage 1 10 23 14 — 48

Bentonville (15-1, 3-0): Lee 15, Casey 11, Coleman 11, Mabues 7, Adkins 6, Secrest 4, Garrard 3.

Rogers Heritage (12-4, 2-1): Jobst 11, Britton 10, A. Ward 9, B. Ward 9, Murray 6, Lundy 3.

Junior Varsity Score: Bentonville 41, Rogers Heritage 14.

Guard Rayshaun Casey drained a pair of 3-pointers early and 6-1 senior Julia Garrard swatted away a couple of shot attempts by Heritage’s Ashley Ward to get Bentonville going early.

The Lady Tigers turned the early season showdown into a blowout, leading 32-11 at halftime.

Lady Tigers coach Tom Halbmaier couldn’t have asked for a better start from his team.

“I was really pleased with the mental focus our girls brought to the game today,” Halbmaier said. “We started the game very well, crisp and in tune with one another

I was really pleased how our girls; the mental focus they brought to the game today

started game very well; crisp, in tune with one another. That first half is probably about as well as we’ve played. And it was totally a team effort.”

Taylor Lee led a balanced scoring attack with 15 points, including 9 of 12 from the free throw line. Casey and Kindal Coleman added 11 points each.

Bentonville was red-shot from the floor, making 17 of 29 shots (59 percent), including 7 of 11 from 3-point range.

Heritage coach Kevin Ramey agreed Bentonville dominated the game from the start.

“They did what ever they wanted in the first half,” Ramey said. “I thought coming into the game we were better prepared than we were. Hats off to Bentonville. The score wasn’t indicative of how bad they beat us.”

The Lady War Eagles (12-4, 2-1) didn’t manage a field goal until there was 6 minutes, 22 seconds left in the second quarter. By the time Brittany Ward made a driving layup, Bentonville led 21-3.

Heritage got no closer than the final score in the second half.

Emily Jobst led the Lady War Eagles with 11 points, while Gina Britton added 10 off the bench.

Bentonville hosts Rogers High on Tuesday, while Heritage travels to Van Buren to continue league play.

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