ROGERS -- Rogers Heritage boys basketball coach Tom Olsen likes where his team is right now for obvious reasons. The War Eagles are off to their best start in school history at 6-0 and won the Carthage (Mo.) Invitational for the second consecutive year on Saturday.
The War Eagles will try to continue that momentum in this week's Arvest Hoopfest, which begins Thursday in War Eagle Arena.
Arvest Hoopfest
at War Eagles Arena, Rogers Heritage
Thursday
Game 1: Mount Vernon, Mo. vs. Tulsa Edison, 4 p.m.
Game 2: Rogers High vs. Webb City, Mo., 5:30 p.m.
Game 3: Fort Smith Southside vs. Waynesville, Mo., 7 p.m.
Game 4: Rogers Heritage vs. Pea Ridge, 8:30 p.m.
Friday
Game 5: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 4 p.m.
Game 6: Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 loser, 5:30 p.m.
Game 7: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 7 p.m.
Game 8: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 8:30 p.m.
Saturday
Game 9: Seventh-place game, 1 p.m.
Game 10: Fifth-place game, 2:30 p.m.
Game 11: Third-place game, 4 p.m.
Game 12: Championship game, 5:30 p.m.
"I think our guys have a lot of confidence and I feel like we're in a good place," Olsen said. "It's the best place we've ever been. It's at home and we're excited. The one thing we've done is play defense extremely well. But to reach our potential to improve some decision-making and get some better shots at some specific times in the game are what we need to focus on going forward."
Heritge is led by senior Connor Hirsh, who is averaging 16 points per game, while junior guard Lexus Hobbs is next at 12 a game.
Defending Hoopfest champion Waynesville, Mo., will get plenty of attention as the Tigers are led by 6-foot-8 forward Juwan Morgan, who has already to signed to play at Indiana.
Heritage will take on Class 4A Pea Ridge in the final game of the opening night. Blackhawks coach Trent Loyd said his team's still trying to come together, after getting some key parts from Pea Ridge's conference champion football team.
"Every day you can see us getting more comfortable whether it's the football guys on the court, or the others meshing with the football guys," Loyd said.
Pea Ridge (4-3) returns five of his top eight players and is also getting help from a talented sophomore group. The Arvest Hoopfest is the second tournament for Pea Ridge, which includes several larger schools. That's by design since he and the Blackhawks have postseason aspirations, Loyd said.
"This will be back to back tournaments at Van Buren and now Rogers Heritage and we could probably have gone to a couple others and maybe got more wins. But this is for the long haul, not just to help us in our conference by going farther as well."
Rogers (3-3) went 1-2 in a tournament at Coweta, Okla., last weekend, but Mounties coach Wayne Herren is hoping to see his team find its shooting touch. The Mounties are shooting less than 35 percent from the floor through six games.
"It's puzzling to me because coming into the season I thought we would be a good shooting team," Herren said. "It's not like we're taking a lot of bad shots. My biggest concern coming into the season was rebounding and we've done fine there.
"I like our team. We're very scrappy and the kids play really hard. Our defense has improved from a year ago."
The Mounties return only two players who saw regular varsity minutes a year ago, Herren said.
Milacio Freeland leads the team, averaging 12 points per game, while Daniel Salvador, who was named to the all-tournament team in Coweta, averages just under 11 points and five rebounds.
Rogers will take on Webb City, Mo., which won a state title in football a week ago and played its first basketball game on Tuesday.
Herren is hopeful he can take advantage of their lack of time on the court, but he also admitted they will have a size advantage.
"They will be 6-4, 6-7, 6-5 across the front line," Herren said. "But maybe they won't have their basketball legs under them quite yet."
Sports on 12/11/2014