ROGERS -- Rogers High faced plenty of adversity against rival Rogers Heritage, but Lady Mounties coach Preston Early thought his team had an answer at key points Wednesday night at War Eagle Arena.
Rogers had the final answer, making nine of 12 free throws over the final 1 minute, 57 seconds to hold on for a tough 49-45 win over the Lady War Eagles.
The Lady Mounties (12-10, 5-4 7A-West Conference) never trailed in the second half, but they could never completely put Heritage away either.
The Lady War Eagles pulled within 40-37 and missed a potentially game-tying 3-pointers with 2:09 left. Madison Loyd poured in a game-high 21 points for Rogers and hit one of two free throws with 5.8 seconds left to set the final score.
Early said his team overcame some issues like 15 turnovers or some missed defensive assignments.
"I thought when it got tough or if we made it hard on ourselves we always answered," Early said. "I didn't think we flinched when we faced some adversity. This is what we do. We're 22 games into this. Sometimes we inflict some damage on ourselves. We made it harder than it hand to be.
"But bottom line our players had a great competitive spirit and made some plays against a team that's playing as hard as they can play."
Ally Figenskau, a 6-1 junior added 10 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots, for Rogers despite being in foul trouble a good portion of the night.
Heritage coach Scott Moore was not unhappy about his players' effort, but they must learn how to finish.
"The girls work so hard to run our plays, run our system and get themselves in good scoring positions," Moore said. "And then they miss the shots, the short ones, the bunnies, the open looks. We have to get those to go down for us. And that's an everybody problem."
Faith Rohrbough led Heritage (5-16, 0-9) with 11 points, while Sydney Kinnamon added nine.
Rogers High 59, Rogers Heritage 45
Rogers 15 7 13 14 -- 49
Heritage 10 11 10 14 -- 45
Rogers (12-10, 5-4): Loyd 21, Figenskau 10, Storey 9, Carr 4, Hatch 3, Covington 2.
Rogers Heritage (5-16, 0-9): Rohrbough 11, Kinnamon 9, Menke 7, Richardson 6, Seiler 4, Dickerson 4, Brooks 2, Pabon 2
Boys: Rogers Heritage 53, Rogers High 31
The War Eagles (16-6, 5-4) used a 15-0 second-quarter run to take control en route to the easy 7A-West Conference win.
Senior Seth Stanley poured in a game-high 23 points, while Dawson Peek added 18, including three 3-pointers, as those two alone combined to outscore Rogers.
Heritage coach Tom Olsen was pleased with how his team bounced back from a sub-par effort in a loss at Springdale High. He also acknowledged that assistant coach Kyle Moix and Paul Boyles had more of a hand in the game plan against Rogers.
"We weren't real happy with our performance at Springdale," Olsen said. "Nine points at halftime. I thought that was kind of an underachievement for us. The second thing we did was fire our offensive coordinator, which was me. We relied a little bit more on coach Boyles and coach Moix. They put it together. Those guys deserve all the credit for this one.
"Dawson was really special tonight. He struggled a few weeks ago shooting the ball, but he got back in rhythm in practice. Sometimes your technique has to be refined and he's shooting the ball great. When he's making shots and some of our other guards are making some shots and Seth does what he does, we can score."
Rogers (7-15, 0-9) opened the second quarter with a 7-1 spurt to get within 20-14, but Heritage responded with 15 straight points for a 35-12 advantage and led 35-16 at halftime.
Drew Miller led Rogers with 11 points.
Rogers Heritage 53, Rogers High 31
Rogers 7 9 6 9 -- 31
Heritage 19 16 12 6 -- 53
Rogers (7-15, 0-9): Miller 11, Dake 5, Paschal 4, Jones 3, K. Uecker 2, Rhame 2, Austin 2, Lacewell 2.
Rogers Heritage (16-6, 5-4): Stanley 23, Peek 18, Olsen 6, Kimball 4, Carpenter 2.
Preps Basketball on 02/08/2018