FAYETTEVILLE -- Vic Rimmer points to the core of his current senior class as the ones who turned the corner and paved the way for championship-level success for the years to follow in the Fayetteville girls' basketball program.
Rimmer and the Lady Bulldogs were able to send out those significant upperclass players in style Tuesday, celebrating Senior Night with a 68-43 victory against Rogers High at Bulldog Arena.
Girls
Fayetteville 68, Rogers High 43
Rogers High^13^13^6^11^—^43
Fayetteville^19^20^9^20^—^68
Rogers High (11-15, 4-9): Randels 15, Brown 10, Sandor 9, Wisdom 4, McKinney 4, Hale 1.
Fayetteville (20-6, 11-2): B. Jones 14, Morgan 13, Spangler 13, Osborne 6, Franklin 4, P. Jones 4, Holmes 4, Breathitt 3, Mayberry 3, Ratcliff 2, Rimmer 2.
Boys
Fayetteville 69, Rogers High 52
Rogers High^10^17^12^13^—^52
Fayetteville^14^22^15^18^—^69
Rogers High (8-18, 2-11): Heffley 13, Benninghoff 12, Freeland 11, Salvador 9, Young 5, Mincks 2.
Fayetteville (23-3, 12-1): Willis 21, Carlson 17, Breathitt 13, Youngblood 8, Barnes 3, Hendrycy 2, Rainey 2, Wymer 2, Roth 1.
"This group of seniors, they changed the culture for me here these last few years," Rimmer said. "The first couple of years I was here were a struggle, and when this group came on as sophomores everything changed.
"Our tempo, our effort, everything changed and I told them I'll be comparing everything for years to come to this group of seniors."
Fayetteville (20-6, 11-2 7A-West) swayed away at times from its patented defense-first mentality and instead showed off plenty of scoring ability on the offensive end. With an all-senior starting lineup of Pink Jones, Blue Jones, Delaney Osbourn, DaShundra Morgan and Haley Ratcliff, the Lady'Dogs went to work on offense -- and particularly from 3-point range -- right from the start.
Morgan scored eight of her 13 points in the first half and Blue Jones finished with 14, on 5-of-5 shooting, as Fayetteville tore off a 39-point first half.
The Lady Mounties, try as they might, simply couldn't keep up.
"I just thought their offensive talent is so impressive," Rogers coach Preston Early said. "I was proud of our kids because there was some things we did well. We had an idea of what we wanted to do. You have to hit some shots and we did. But those guys can score and they did, and credit to them because they cane just really play the game well."
Fayetteville, which has now won 10 consecutive, hit 14 of 26 field goals in the first half and kept up the hot shooting with a 12-for-23 mark after intermission.
"We usually play better offensively when we play well defensively," Rimmer said. "We didn't always execute well on offense tonight and I thought at times we just kind of out-athleted them, which we'll not be able to do down the road.
"Preston's kids played really hard and their big kids bothered us. I thought we did a good job on the perimeter but their bigs did bother us."
Elise Randels scored 15 points and Samantha Brown added 10 for the Lady Mounties (11-15, 4-9).
Fayetteville closes out the regular season Friday at BentonvilleFriday, while Rogers hosts Springdale High.
Boys
Fayetteville 69, Rogers High 52
The Bulldogs got 21 points from Payton Willis and a 13-point, 15-rebound effort from Josh Breathitt to wrap up at least a share of the 7A-West Conference championship with Tuesday's Senior Night victory against the Mounties.
Fayetteville (23-3, 12-1) turned up the defense in key spurts and showed off a transition game led by Willis and August Carlson, who also finished with 17 points.
"That's the thing about August is he gets up and down the floor so well," Fayetteville coach Kyle Adams said. "(Assistant coach) Brad (Stamps) has done a good job working with August and Demaunte (Youngblood) and other guys getting them up and down the floor in transition. That's something we had gotten away from in the past couple of weeks but we ran the floor a lot better tonight."
Harrison Hefley led Rogers (8-18, 2-11) with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Sports on 02/24/2016