FAYETTEVILLE — Fayetteville coach Kyle Adams may be feeling a bit better after missing Wednesday’s game with Bentonville West because of illness.
Jon Conley scored 17 points and Collin Cooper 16 points to lead Fayetteville to a 69-63 victory over the Wolverines in 7A-West Conference action at the Bulldogs gym. Fayetteville was guided by assistant coach Brad Stamps, who filled in for Adams, who was sick on Wednesday.
“Kyle’s under the weather, running a fever, and he didn’t want to get anybody else sick,” Stamps said. “We told him it’s a collective responsibility for all of us and that we all have to do our job. Once he sees the score and how we held on, he’s going to be proud of us.”
The game matched Stamps against Bentonville West coach Greg White, who was an assistant under Stamps at Springdale High and Shiloh Christian.
West (14-8, 4-5) played much better after losing 65-49 to Fayetteville at home on Jan. 9. The Wolverines eased ahead 51-50 after a free throw by Gabe Hornsby midway through the fourth quarter. But Fayetteville regained the lead behind Conley and Cooper, who combined to make 13 of 16 free throws. The Bulldogs finished 25 of 34 from the free-throw line while West was 10 of 17.
“We made free throws when we had to and the guys made big defensive plays down the stretch,” Stamps said. “Give credit to West, they kept coming back and fighting.”
Hornsby scored 14 points for West while Frank Morgan added 11 for Fayetteville (14-7, 7-2), which has won four consecutive.
The lead changed a handful of times in the second quarter after Fayetteville grabbed a 17-13 lead after one quarter. Bentonville pulled ahead 23-21 with the help of 3-pointers by Collier Blackburn and Collin Blackburn and a fastbreak slam dunk by Gabe Hornsby that ignited the Wolverines’ bench.
Fayetteville regained a 32-31 lead at halftime behind the play of Conley, who had 21 points in the Bulldogs’ 50-37 victory over Bentonville High last Friday. West also had trouble containing Conley, who made aggressive moves to the basket from his guard position.
West had 10 points in the first half, including a steal and a layup followed seconds later by a baseline drive to put the Bulldogs ahead 32-31.
Bentonville West 13 18 17 15 — 63 Fayetteville....... 17 15 18 19 — 69 West (14-8, 4-5): Hornsby 14, Barron 13, Blackburn 12, Bailey 11, Larsen 7, Blackburn 6, Fayetteville (14-7, 7-2): Conley 17, Cooper 16, Morgan 12, Bowers 8, Schach 6, Johnson 5, Releford 5.
BENTONVILLE HIGH 65, VAN BUREN 33
Bentonville ran off 26 unanswered points in the first and second quarters, then proceeded to turn its game with Van Buren into a rout.
The Tigers (14-6, 6-3) closed out the first quarter with 12 straight points for a 16-4 lead, then Michael Shanks and Josh Smith each scored a pair of 3-pointers to start the second quarter and make it a 28-4 game with 6:36 before halftime. Van Buren (12-10, 3-6) used a 17-2 run to pull within 30-21 on a Presley Kindrix 3-pointer, but Bentonville scored the next 17 points to blow the game open. Shanks had 18 of his 20 points in the first half to lead Bentonville, followed by Asa Hutchinson IV with 10. Jordan West and Mekhi Burnett led Van Buren with eight apiece.
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 as those two combined to outscored Rogers by themselves. 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.
SPRINGDALE HAR-BER 58, SPRINGDALE HIGH 56
Tylor Perry hit a three-point play with 4.1 seconds left to lift the Wildcats to a narrow home win. Perry got a steal on an inbound pass and drew contact going up for the shot as the ball settled into the net to tie the game at 56-56 after Har-Ber (18-5, 7-2) trailed most of the game. His free-throw gave Har-Ber a 57-56 lead, then added a late free throw for the final score. Springdale (13-9, 4-5) gave the league-leading Wildcats all they wanted from start-to-finish and looked like it would pull the upset of its crosstown rival with a late lead, but Perry, who scored 19 points, had different ideas. The Bulldogs got balanced scoring, led by Juan Boyd with 11 and Marquis Donaho with 10.