Saturday, February 22, 2014
ROGERS -- Rogers High girls basketball coach Preston Early told junior Libby Ganoung she was going to have a better second half.
Ganoung made good on Early's prediction.
7A/6A-West Conference
Girls
Rogers High 43, Van Buren 30
Van Buren^10^7^7^6^ —^ 30
Rogers^16^4^10^13^ —^ 43
Van Buren (5-18, 0-12): Snowden 12, Santillana 10, Goodwin 5, Jones 2, Glassco 1.
Rogers (7-16, 4-8): Ganoung 14, Sagely 10, Davis 6, Trexler 6, King 6, Turner 1.
Ganoung scored 11 of her 14 points in the second half as the Lady Mounties pulled away to defeat Van Buren 43-30 in a 7A/6A-West Conference game in King Arena Friday night. The win keeps Rogers (7-16, 4-8) in the thick of the race for a berth in the state tournament.
Rogers led 20-17 at halftime and the Lady Pointers cut the lead to 20-19 early in the third period. But Ganoung scored the Lady Mounties first two-point field goal of the game at the midway point of the third and she added another layup during the 9-0 run as Rogers took a 29-19 lead.
Ganoung then fueled a 13-0 fourth-period run with back-to-back layups as the Lady Mounties pulled away. Ganoung also had nine rebounds, two assists and two steals. Brooke Sagely was also in double figures for Rogers with 10 points.
"Coach told me that he had a good feeling that I would have a better second half," said Ganoung, who missed all four of her first half field goal attempts. "I just wanted to come out and help my team the best that I could."
Rogers was just 13-of-46 from the field, including 6-of-20 from 3-point range, but Early said the Lady Mounties defense was the difference maker. Van Buren scored just 0.56 points per possession and the Lady Mounties held a 39-30 rebounding advantage. Van Buren didn't tally any second-chance points.
"We may have been the worst shooting team in the nation," Early said. "But we never gave in defensively. Not many teams can continue to defend that well when they are not making shots. The shots that we were getting were not bad, we just had a bad rhythm. Our will to win had to be strong, and we had that."
The Lady Mounties travel to Rogers Heritage Tuesday and they close out the regular season Friday at Springdale Har-Ber. Heritage won the first meeting 47-45 and that means Rogers must win by three or more points to win the head-to-head tiebreaker, which could loom large at the end of the season.
"This was a big character win for us," Early said. "This was a must-win game for us."
Lani Snowden led Van Buren (5-18, 0-12) with 12 points while Maria Santillana added 10.
Sports on 02/22/2014