Hirsh, Redmond Honored

Connor Hirsh had two big games to lead Rogers Heritage to a pair of wins last week as the War Eagles ended the first half of 7A/6A-West play with a surge.

Hirsh scored 19 points and had 10 rebounds in a 68-54 win against rival Rogers High on Tuesday.

He followed that up with another solid performance on Friday in a 52-40 win against Siloam Springs with 22 points, nine rebounds and four steals, earning him this week’s 7A /6A-West Conference Boys Player of the Week honors.

On Tuesday against Rogers, Heritage led 39-28 going into the fourth quarter when Hirsh scored all nine points for the War Eagles during a 9-2 run to open the quarter and open the game up.

Hirsh has been solid for Heritage everywhere, but especially the free-throw line. Hirsh has converted 32 of 35 free throws in his last four games.

Hirsh’s 20-point game made him the third player on the team to reach the plateau this season. Crist Olsen notched consecutive 20-point outings earlier in the conference season. Last Tuesday, Julian Jensen scored 20 points against Rogers while Hirsh added 19.

REDMOND LIFTS HAR-BER INTO FIRST-PLACE TIE

Har-Ber’s Paige Redmond scored 27 points in a pair of key wins last week.

Redmond scored 13 points on Tuesday to hand Fayetteville its fi rst conference loss of the season in a 44-34 win and move Har-Ber into a fi rst-place tie.

On Friday, Redmond chipped in 14 points in a 39-37 win at Rogers, earning Girls Player of the Week honors.

Against Fayetteville in a battle between the top two teams in the league, Har-Ber led 10-4 after a quarter. Redmond drilled three 3-pointers in the second quarter to bump the Lady Wildcats to a 21-14 lead.

QUALITY VS. QUANTITY

Bentonville’s Malik Monk has proven has can provide both quality and quantity.

Week before last, Monk scored 43 points in a 73-51 win against Siloam Springs.

Last week, he hit 3-point baskets on Tuesday and again on Friday as time expired to lift his Tigers to victory.

On Friday, his 28-footer from high above the key beat Fayetteville 52-49. On Tuesday, Monk hit a fall-away 3-pointer on an inbounds pass to beat Springdale High 57-56.

The two baskets were starkly diff erent.

Friday in a game tied at 49-49, Monk took the inbounds pass with 1 5 seconds remaining and dribbled out the remainder of the clock while heavily guarded. He dribbled inside the 3-point arc once but retreated and shot from 28 feet away with 0.6 seconds left. The ball hit nothing but the bottom of the net for the victory.

The 3-point line in high school is 19 feet, 9 inches.

On Tuesday, the finish was even more dramatic in Bentonville’s win when time was put back on the clock after it had expired.

Springdale led 56-54 on Tereke Eckwood’s layup. On Bentonville’s inbounds pass, the ball defl ected out of bounds and the final horn sounded. The oft cials signaled the game over. Springdale’s fan and players celebrated. Both team’s coaches shook hands.

The officials, however, conferred and ruled the ball went off of Springdale out of bounds and that 0.8 seconds actually remained in the game.

Monk took the inbounds pass near the sideline and heaved up a fade-away from 30 feet out that fell through for a 57-54 win.

With this season’s major rule change regarding the block versus charge call, and hand-checking calls 40 feet from the basket while players continue to hammer away underneath, Monk has convinced Bentonville coach Jason McMahan he chose the right field for his profession.

“I told one of the officials the other day, ‘man, no matter how mad I get at a hand-checking call or any of those things, this sure beats busting rocks,’” McMahan said.

The 0.8 seconds that was put back onto the clock is actually a half-second more than is necessary to catch a pass and immediately launch a shot, according to the Trent Tucker Rule. The rule was passed by the National Basketball Association prior to the 1990 season and is named after former New York Knicks guard Trent Tucker. According to the rule, it takes at least 0.3 seconds to catch a pass and launch a shot before the clock expires. If 0.2 remains or less, then only a basket made off a tip-in or high lob will count.

The rule was instituted after the Knicks’ 109-106 win against the Chicago Bulls in 1990. Only 0.1 second remained when Mark Jackson inbounded to Tucker, who caught the pass and turned and hit a 3-pointer for the win. The Bulls fi led a protest, saying the play took closer to 0.4 seconds to complete. The protest was disallowed, but the rule was instated prior to the start of the next season.

The NCAA goes by the same rule.

JUST HOW MUCH

Those rule changes limiting defenses was designed to increase scoring.

Well, on the high school level in the 7A/6A-West, it hasn’t worked.

Now, that’s through half of the season, so a good scientist would only conclude there is not a big enough sampling yet.

Through half of the season, boys teams are scoring a combined 103.8 points per game.

Last year, the combined scoring average was 104.6, in 2012 it was 109.6, in 2011 it was 95.1 and in 2010 it was 99.4.

For the girls, scoring is up to 92.1 combined points per game this year over 90.9 last year.

Still, in 2012 scoring was higher at 96.9 and in 2011 at 94.9. In 2010, the girls averaged 87.4 combined points per game.

An Associated Press story released over the weekend indicates that scoring is up and shooting percentages are up in the NCAA, and that the new rules have helped clean up the game.

On the high school, at least in Arkansas, that remains to be seen.

MUST-SEE GAMES

These are the key games in the second half of the conference round-robin schedule that will help decide conference championships, state tournament seedings and state tournament berths.

Friday: Van Buren at Bentonville boys. The second half of the conference schedule starts off with a bang. Bentonville leads the league and will get a test right off the bat against the Pointers. Bentonville won at Van Buren, 51-46, to start off league play.

Feb. 21: Rogers Heritage at Springdale Har-Ber boys. This game could decide the final spot in the Class 7A state tournament. Currently, Heritage, Har-B er and Fayetteville are tied for fi fth place in the points rating system. Only two of the three will go to the state tournament. Fayetteville does hold a slight advantage, though, in that the Bulldogs host both Har-Ber and Heritage in the second half of conference play.

Feb. 25: Springdale at Bentonville boys. Bentonville closes out its home schedule against Springdale, which was the victim of Monk’s buzzer-beating 30-footer last week.

Fe b . 2 5: Springdale Har-Ber at Fayetteville girls: The two teams are currently tied for first place and have a two-game lead ahead of Springdale.

February 28: Rogers Heritage at Siloam Springs girls: Heritage currently sits just four points ahead of Bryant for the fi nal state tournament berth. Bryant, according to the points rating system, joins the West from the 7A/6A-South for state tournament seeding purposes. Heritage will likely need two wins out of the final four games against Van Buren, Har-Ber, Rogers and Siloam Springs, respectively. It could all boil down the season final against 6A Siloam Springs. Bryant is in sixth place in the 7A/6ASouth but is assured of at least 10 points with a win against 1-13 Little Rock Fair. Bryant already owns a 5-point win at home against Texarkana, which is in seventh place in the conference.