PREP BASKETBALL: Anderson needed 6, finished with 36 to surpass 1,000-point plateau for Bentonville West

basketball graphic
basketball graphic


ROGERS -- Tucker Anderson ended the mystery early Tuesday night on when he'd surpass 1,000 points for his career at Bentonville West.

That happened in the first quarter when Anderson scored 12 of the Wolverines' 15 points. Anderson kept scoring and finished with 36 to lead Bentonville West to a 60-38 victory over Rogers Heritage in 6A-West Conference action play at the War Eagles gym.

Anderson began the game six points shy of reaching 1,000 points. He already had seven 90 seconds into the game, signaling the milestone and eliciting a round of applause from his teammates after they were informed what Anderson had done during a timeout in the West huddle. Anderson came back onto the floor and swished a 3-pointer to give West a 10-0 lead.

"Tucker was aggressive going to the rim and doing his thing," Bentonville West coach Greg White said. "He didn't know about how close he was (to 1,000) and we had planned on calling timeout to let him celebrate with his teammates. We got on a run and they had to call timeout. He's a great player and it was good to get that for him."

Anderson added another basket in the second quarter before heating up again in the second half for West (16-1, 5-0), which began the night ranked No. 3 in Class 6A and No. 4 in the Overall poll by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Anderson's performance continued a hot streak for him, last week's Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette boys Player of the Week. The Central Arkansas signee had 24 points and six rebounds in a 59-53 win in a makeup game against Fort Smith Northside. He then added 26 points and 11 points two days later in a win over Springdale High.

Bentonville West led Rogers Heritage 27-17 at halftime and 47-28 after three quarters following a 3-pointer from Q. Thompson and a foul-line jumper from Anderson, who went to the bench for good with 2:39 left in the game.

"Getting 1,000 points is something you dream about as a kid," Anderson said after achieving the plateau. "It's crazy. I didn't think I'd get to this point but I'm glad I did.

Ben Manuel scored 17 points to lead Rogers Heritage (10-5, 2-2) while center Lane Jeffcoat added seven points and controlled the inside for the Wolverines.


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