VAN BUREN — After two oh-so-close opportunities to get road wins failed in the 7A/6A-West Conference, Van Buren finally put together a solid home performance.
The Pointers jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first four minutes of the game and never looked back, cruising to a 63-45 victory over Rogers Heritage Tuesday at Clair Bates Arena.
“We really needed this win after starting conference 0-3,” Van Buren coach Randy Loyd said. “We lost to two of the top three teams (Bentonville and Fayetteville) and we lost a tough one to Har-Ber, a game we could have and should have won.”
Even after jumping out to the early advantage, Van Buren (8-8, 1-3 7A/6A-West) used small bursts to end the first half and third period to get the lead to 20 points.
Van Buren 63, Rogers Heritage 45
Heritage 11 11 6 17 — 45
Van Buren 18 15 14 16 — 63
Heritage (9-7, 0-4): Olsen 13, Thomas 10, Kinnamon 9, Prince 6, Greenway 3, Fryauf 2, Hirsh 2.
Van Buren (8-8, 1-3): Smith 17, Pearson 17, Ray 16, Pagel 5, Tucker 5, Harms 3.
“I thought the kids played with a lot of energy tonight,” Loyd said. “This may have been one of our better defensive efforts of the year. Offensively, we had a lot of inside-outside balance.”
The Pointers had three players combine for 50 points – guard Ryan Pearson and 6-8 freshman Mitchell Smith scored 17 points apiece while guard Quinton Ray added 16. Smith also grabbed 13 rebounds as Van Buren outrebounded Heritage 30-16.
The slow start in the first quarter put Heritage in a hole it could not climb out of.
“Van Buren had a great game plan,” Heritage coach Tom Olsen said. “They fed the ball inside to (Smith) and he was awesome. Then we try to help under the basket and we left their shooters open and they made threes. They were really balanced and we did not have an answer tonight. They were outstanding.”
Despite the early 14-0 deficit, the War Eagles (9-7, 0-4) did climb back to within five at 27-22, but a 3-point play by Jason Harms and a trey at the buzzer by Ray increased the Pointer lead back to 33-22 at halftime.
Van Buren ended the third period with a 9-3 spurt, capped by a Smith putback with :01 left for a commanding 47-28 lead.
Crist Olsen led Rogers with 13 points while Xavier Thomas added 10.