FAYETTEVILLE -- Rogers Heritage has made a habit lately of causing fits for Fayetteville on the boys' basketball court.
It was no different Friday night as the War Eagles pushed the hometown Bulldogs for three full quarters before big work in the rebounding department and tough defense down the stretch helped Fayetteville pull away for a 71-53 win in 7A-West Conference play at Bulldog Arena.
Boys
Fayetteville 71, Rogers Heritage 53
Heritage^11^18^14^10^—^53
Fayetteville^19^15^13^24^—^71
Heritage (10-9, 1-4): Hobbs 16, Olsen 13, Casey 13, Breedlove 6, M. Stanley 3, S. Stanley 2.
Fayetteville (16-2, 5-0): Breathitt 22, Willis 16, Brown 11, Youngblood 9, Carlson 8, Roth 5.
Girls
Fayetteville 69, Rogers Heritage 36
Heritage^10^8^14^4^—^36
Fayetteville^13^22^12^22^—^69
Heritage (6-12, 1-4): Seiler 10, Tiles 9, Turner 6, Menke 4, Kinnamon 3, Lakis 2, Thompson 2.
Fayetteville (12-6, 3-2): Franklin 18, P. Jones 10, Mayberry 9, Morgan 8, Osborne 8, Spangler 6, Ratchliff 4, Rimmer 2, Stokenbury 2, Salley 2.
"Lexus Hobbs is just a really great athlete, and they did a really good job spreading us out and shooting the ball well with Olsen and (Tony Casey)," Fayetteville coach Kyle Adams said. "I thought the key for us was late in the second half we starting guarding better, and I thought we controlled the backboards. That's what I thought the difference was."
Fayetteville (16-2, 5-0 7A-West) hit timely 3-pointers to help build comfortable leads on Heritage on more than one occasion through the first three quarters. But led by the determined Hobbs, who finished with 16 points and five rebounds, the War Eagles kept chipping away.
Late in the third quarter, Heritage (10-9, 1-4) even pulled to within 44-43 of Fayetteville at one point before a Josh Breathitt old fashioned three-point play slowed down the War Eagles' momentum.
Breathitt, who finished with 22 points and seven rebounds, was difficult for Heritage to slow down all night and a big part of Fayetteville blowing open a much closer game than what the final score indicated.
"I think they had 14 second-chance points in the second half," Heritage coach Tom Olsen said. "We did a good job initially, but they eventually break your back. A couple of bad bounces there when we had it down to six, maybe an iffy charge or block charge which is part of basketball. And then Payton (Willis) goes down on the other end and makes some big buckets.
"He ends up with 16 and if you said he was going to have 16, I would have said good deal. But Breathitt hurt us around the bucket with his strength and size. All in all, though, we were right there until the very end."
Willis added 16 points and Spencer Brown 11 for Fayetteville. Dane Olsen and Casey contributed 13 points each for Heritage.
Fayetteville visits Rogers High on Tuesday and the War Eagles travel to Bentonville.
Girls: Fayetteville 69, Rogers Heritage 36
Sophomore Jasmine Franklin continued to impress in her sophomore season with the Lady Bulldogs, scoring a game-high 18 points -- on 8 of 10 shooting from the floor -- to go along with eight rebounds as Fayetteville pulled away in the second half Friday.
Rogers Heritage (6-12, 1-4) kept the game close for one quarter and even close to halftime before a 9-0 run before intermission gave Fayetteville (12-6, 3-2) a 35-18 lead at the break. DaShundra Morgan also played a big role, scoring 8 points and adding three assists to help the Lady Bulldogs overcome being without Lauren Holmes, who missed the game with a sore back.
Sports on 01/23/2016