ROGERS -- A second-half scoring drought spelled doom for Rogers Heritage against Springdale High earlier this season. The War Eagles turned the tables on the Red'Dogs on Friday night in War Eagle Arena.
Heritage finished the third quarter with a 15-1 spurt to pull away and cruise to a 49-35 7A-West Conference win.
Prep Basketball
Boys
Rogers Heritage 49, Springdale High 35
Springdale^6^8^6^15^—^35
Heritage^9^10^18^12^—^49
Springdale (6-14, 3-5): Fitch 12, Boyd 7, Iraheta 7, Bilyeu 6, Aquino 3.
Rogers Heritage (12-9, 4-4): Stanley 18, Breedlove 13, Olsen 8, Peek 3, Lowrey 3, Giesen 3, Moss 1.
Junior Varsity: Rogers Heritage 36, Springdale High 27.
Girls
Springdale High 52, Rogers Heritage 35
Springdale^14^4^21^13^—^52
Heritage^10^7^8^10^—^35
Springdale (11-10, 5-3): Davis 21, Dougan 15, Vogel 7, Minchew 5, Gause 2, Sysavanh—Landry 2.
Rogers Heritage (6-15, 0-8): Lakis 9, Watkins 9, Kinnamon 6, Rohrbough 6, Thompson 2, Richardson 2, Anderson-Mills 1.
Junior Varisty: Springdale 25, Rogers Heritage 18.
War Eagles coach Tom Olsen admitted the game was similar to the earlier meeting, just in reverse. Junior Seth Stanley poured in a game-high 18 points, while Bryce Breedlove chipped in 13 -- 11 in the second half. Heritage (12-9, 4-4 7A-West) also made 22 of 27 free throws, including 8 of 8 in the fourth quarter.
"We got to the foul line tonight," Olsen said. "We got some easy baskets. Bryce Breedlove played outstanding. We got some production there. Of course Seth is Seth. Defensively, I thought we had a pretty good game plan. The kids executed it. Thirty-five points -- when you play defense like that you're gonna give yourself a chance to win."
Heritage is now all alone in fourth place in the 7A-West, after Van Buren knocked off Bentonville West on Friday. West, Heritage and Springdale started the night tied for fourth.
Springdale (6-14, 3-5) stayed close in a low-scoring first half, despite leading scorer Carl Fitch being in foul trouble. The Red'Dogs trailed 19-14 at halftime, but pulled within 22-19 on Justin Bilyeu's layup. However, Fitch was whistled for his fourth foul on a push-off the possession before Bilyeu's basket.
The Red'Dogs did make another field goal until Bilyeu scored off the glass 30 seconds into the fourth quarter. In the meantime, Heritage took control of the game with a 15-1 run to end the quarter and led 37-20. Springdale got no closer than 10 in the fourth quarter.
Springdale coach Jeremy Price said his team struggles to score at times, especially when the 6-foot-5 Fitch is not in the game. Fitch was Springdale's lone player in double figures with 12 on 10 of 15 from the foul line.
"He needs to touch the ball," Price said. "That attracts people to him. We played hard, but on nights we have a hard time scoring, it put so much pressure on our defense. I thought even defensively we weren't bad. We had some silly fouls and gave up a couple second-chance points. We didn't hit shots and that's a big part of it.
"We had stretches where we couldn't put it in the basket and they execute well. Stanley, you're not gonna take it from him. You've just got to force him to shoot it over you and hope he misses. We sent him to the free throw line too many times and he's money."
Girls
Springdale High 52, Rogers Heritage 35
The Lady Red'Dogs opened the second half with a 12-0 run and pulled away for the win.
Sophomore Marquesha Davis poured in a game-high 21 points, while Haley Dougan chipped in 15 to help Springdale (11-10, 5-3) take control in the second half.
Heritage (6-15, 0-8) trailed only 18-17 at halftime and tied it with a free throw 11 seconds into the second half. But the Lady Red'Dogs responded with 12 straight, including five by Davis, and held Heritage without a field goal for the first 4 minutes, 20 seconds of the half. The Lady War Eagles got no closer than eight the rest of the way.
Meredith Lakis and Hannah Watkins led Heritage with nine points each.
Sports on 02/04/2017