Rogers Heritage matched Siloam Springs for most of the first two quarters Friday. The rest of the 7A/6A-West Conference boys basketball game belonged to Payton Henson and the Panthers.
SILOAM SPRINGS 57, ROGERS HERITAGE 38
Rogers Heritage 10 9 6 13 — 38
Siloam Springs 13 13 13 18 — 57
Rogers Heritage (9-10, 0-7): Crist Olsen 17, Luke Fryauf 8, Conner Hirsh 8, MacKenzie Sims 3, Xavier Thomas 2.
Siloam Springs (15-3, 5-2): Payton Henson 28, Raul Leyva 9, Dylan Gray 6, Nick Seliga 4, Reece Goddard 3, Alex Berger 2, Austin Van Poucke 2, Austin Comiskey 2, Nathan Creasey 1.
Henson scored 28 points and the Panthers bounced back from a disappointing loss Tuesday at Van Buren with a 57-38 win on homecoming inside Panther Activity Center.
“That was our big challenge,” said Panthers coach Tim Stewart, “to bounce back from Tuesday, which was a very disappointing loss. But with that mixed in with homecoming, it’s one of those as a coach where you pray the kids come out and play hard and let the crowd’s energy help us.”
The Panthers (15-3, 5-2) didn’t get off to an especially great start as a team though nothing seemed wrong with Henson.
The 6-foot-8 Tulane signee had 10 of Siloam Springs’ 13 first quarter points. But Heritage (9-10, 0-7) stayed right with Siloam Springs. Crist Olsen hit three 3-pointers in the first half, and Luke Fryauf converted a three-point play to tie the game at 19 with 1 minute, 52 seconds left in the first half.
The Panthers took control from that point.
Raul Leyva banked in a 3-pointer, and Henson grabbed the rebound of his own missed dunk and put it back in for a 24-19 lead.
Henson scored again before the half for a 26-19 lead at intermission. Henson finished 12 of 18 from the floor with 10 rebounds.
“We don’t have an answer for that,” said Heritage coach Tom Olsen. “We tried to take away something from him — from around the basket, mid-range game, something, anything. He goes out, steps on the floor, makes shots. He’s so good when misses, He goes back and sticks it back in. Three of those misses he turned back into points.
“He was by far the difference. We had to devote so much attention to him. Then when the other players got involved, it was just too much for us.”
The Panthers came alive in the third period and pulled ahead by 14 points, including a 7-0 run to end the quarter. Reece Goddard hit a 3-pointer and Dylan Gray scored down low. Payton Henson’s basket at the end of the quarter gave the Panthers a 39-25 lead.
Siloam Springs led by as many as 24 points in the second half.
Olsen finished with five 3-pointers and led Heritage with 17 points.