CONWAY -- Rogers Heritage's first trip to the Class 7A state basketball tournament didn't last as long as the War Eagles would have liked.
Heritage fell behind by double digits early and couldn't recover, losing 58-51 to Cabot in a first-round matchup Thursday at Buzz Bolding Arena.
How They Scored
Boys
Cabot 58
Rogers Heritage 51
Heritage^5^13^12^21^—^51
Cabot^13^15^15^15^—^58
Heritage (16-12): C. Olsen 12, Jensen 12, Hirsh 11, Kinnamon 7, Prince 4, D. Olsen 3, Sams 2.
Cabot (17-10): Ferguson 14, Rowe 13, Iglesias 7, Smith 6, Southerland 6, York 5, Barnes 3, Thomas 2, Penner 2.
The loss ended a breakthrough season for the War Eagles (16-12), who won as many conference games (six) this season as they had in the program's first five years combined.
"A bunch of firsts for Heritage this year," Heritage coach Tom Olsen said. "This senior class leaves a pretty good legacy behind. An all-time leading scorer (Crist Olsen), most wins, most conference wins, most consecutive conference wins, first state tournament berth, first tournament championship in Carthage (Mo.) early in the year. A lot of things they can hang their hat on."
Heritage trailed by as many as 17 points in the fourth quarter before cutting it to 52-47 when Dane Olsen hit 2-of-3 free throws in the final minute. But the War Eagles couldn't get any closer.
Heritage struggled to slow a physical Cabot team that had a height advantage in the front court.
The Panthers (17-10) exploited their matchup advantages, outrebounding Heritage 33-21 and shooting 58 percent, mostly in and around the paint. They were led by Jake Ferguson's 14 points and seven rebounds and Garrett Rowe's 13 points and nine rebounds.
"I thought we could take advantage of getting the ball down to our bigs," said Jerry Bridges, Cabot coach. "I thought the first half, we did a good job of that. ... We thought we could do something against them down inside. That was one of the goals, to play inside-out basketball."
Heritage cut its deficit to 28-23 on Julian Jensen's basket early in the third quarter, but Cabot quickly extended the lead back to double digits and kept it there most of the second half
Heritage often had trouble getting good looks on offense. Cabot was able to hold Olsen to 12 points, less than his 14.6 average that ranked fourth in 7A/6A-West play. Junior forward Connor Hirsh also had 12 points, but Heritage shot just 28 percent.
"They spread their defense out quite a bit and really pushed us out," Olsen said. "And then they were really good enough defenders to keep us from breaking them down off the dribble. They had a great defensive gameplan."
Cabot advances to face Bentonville in the quarterfinals at 8:30 p.m. today.
Sports on 03/07/2014