BENTONVILLE — If Mike Anderson wanted to see Malik Monk put together some highlights Tuesday night, he might have left Tiger Arena a little disappointed.
Instead, Bentonville’s boys basketball team put together one of their better team efforts, and the Tigers methodically took care of business with a 67-43 victory over Rogers High in front of the Arkansas men’s basketball coach, who sat near midcourt for the 7A/6A-West Conference game.
BENTONVILLE 67, ROGERS HIGH 43
Rogers^5^12^11^15^—^43
Bentonville^16^17^15^19^—^67
Rogers (6-16, 0-11): Salvador 12, Hill 11, Street 8, Gentz 6, Freeland 2, Byrd 2, Black 2.
Bentonville (17-3, 11-0): Dixon 14, Monk 14, Caudle 11, Carter 9, Robinson 7, McNee 5, Smith 3, Head 2, Bachman 2.
Bentonville (17-3, 11-0) let everybody get involved and maintained its two-game lead over second-place Springdale High with three games remaining. Monk and Tyrik Dixon each had 14 points to lead the Tigers, while Jake Caudle added 11.
“I think we did a good job of having ball movement and passing it around,” Bentonville coach Jason McMahan said. “I don’t even know who the leading scorer is.
“We just found the open man and did a good job with that. I was proud of our guys with how they played with Coach Anderson there. Everybody did their thing, and right now we need to make any improvements we need to make for any postseason run.”
Caudle set the tone early, scoring seven of his points in the first quarter as Bentonville jumped out to a 16-5 lead in the first quarter. Hunter Hill’s 3-pointer with 6 minutes, 52 seconds left in the first quarter gave Rogers (6-16, 0-11) a brief 3-2 lead, and it lasted just 14 seconds as Bentonville scored the next eight points.
Once Tyrik Dixon’s bucket gave the Tigers a 16-5 lead with 1:37 remaining in the first quarter, the margin never dropped below double digits again. Bentonville’s lead grew to as much as 26 points as McMahan spent much of the second half substituting players liberally and eventually emptied his bench.
“When you have to devote so much attention to one player, it always gives other guys an opportunity to step up,” Rogers coach Wayne Herren said. “I thought Tyrik played really well, stepped up and got to the rim.
“At this point of the year, we’re focusing on effort and getting some younger guys ready to play in the future and looking forward to the last three games of the year.”
One of those younger players, sophomore Daniel Salvador, hit four 3-pointers and finished with 12 points to lead the Mounties, while Hill added 11.