Basketball: Fayetteville sweeps past Bentonville

FAYETTEVILLE -- Bentonville is the 7A-West Conference boys' basketball champions, but Fayetteville continues to have the Tigers' number.

The Bulldogs won their third consecutive game against Bentonville -- dating back to last season -- and swept the season series to hand the Tigers their only two conference losses this year.

7A-West Conference

Boys

Fayetteville 72, Bentonville 59 (OT)

Bentonville^15^20^12^11^1^—^59

Fayetteville^14^12^15^17^14^—^72

Bentonville (18-7, 12-2): Monk 26, Loy 14, Hemphill 7, Smith 4, Jones 3, Robinson 3, Head 1, Estrada 1.

Fayetteville (22-5, 10-4): Willis 23, Breathitt 14, O’Grady 14, Brown 9, Carlson 6, Wymer 3, Egbosimba 2, Lockett 1.

7A-West Conference

Girls

Fayetteville 50, Bentonville 43

Bentonville^11^18^9^5^—^43

Fayetteville^14^10^9^17^—^50

Bentonville (17-10, 8-6): Martin 13, Brittain 9, Johnston 6, Hernandez 5, Byford 4, Hargus 4, Taylor 2.

Fayetteville (21-6, 13-1): Crockett 13, P. Jones 12, Morgan 9, Schuldt 8, Holmes 4, B. Jones 4.

Fayetteville had to work hard Monday to keep their recent hot streak over the Tigers alive, rallying from a nine-point halftime deficit before forcing overtime where it was all Fayetteville in a 72-59 victory on Senior Night for the Bulldogs at Bulldog Arena.

"I'm really happy for our seniors," Fayetteville coach Kyle Adams said. "We were able to get them all in there at the end and that meant a lot.

"Bentonville is a great team and we did some things to hurt ourselves early on. We took some bad shots in the first half and got behind. But we started attacking inside and that's what we need to do."

Payton Willis (23 points) and Malik Monk (26) came out firing and put on a show right from the start. Bentonville, behind Monk and Hunter Loy from long range, slowly built a lead on the Bulldogs (22-5, 10-4). But the second half belonged to Fayetteville, as C.J. O'Grady scored 11 of his 14 points and finished with seven rebounds -- scoring six in overtime.

"I thought O'Grady was the difference," Bentonville coach Jason McMahan said. "It seems like he always is against us. He just stepped up with a couple of those big offensive possessions."

Fayetteville earned the No. 2 seed from the 7A-West Conference with the win and will now get to rest until Friday. The Bulldogs will face the winner of Bryant vs. Rogers Heritage.

"We did not want to have to play four games in a week," Adams said. "We have some tired guys so it was big to win this game and get a bye so we could get some rest."

Bentonville (18-7, 12-2) plays Thursday against the Springdale-West Memphis winner in the Class 7A Tournament.

"Our situation tonight was tricky because we didn't have anything to play for other that pride and integrity," McMahan said. "We tried to limit some minutes, and then when we went into overtime we really didn't want that."

Girls

Fayetteville 50, Bentonville 43

The Lady Bulldogs needed to rally past a physical and determined Bentonville on Monday, but got just enough defensive stops and overcame a dominating effort by the Lady Tigers on the offensive boards to rally at Bulldog Arena.

Fayetteville (21-6, 13-1) earned a share of its second consecutive 7A-West Conference title with the win.

"It means a lot to me, to be conference champs again for the second year in a row," Fayetteville coach Vic Rimmer said. "Bentonville played a heck of a game. They were very physical and made us work.

"We talk about a SDQ's, single digit quarters, on defense and we got a couple of those in the third and fourth quarter."

Sydney Crockett scored 12 of her team-high 13 points in the first quarter and helped the Lady Bulldogs burst out to an 18-11 lead. But Bentonville (17-10, 8-6) would slow down Fayetteville with a dominating 51-29 edge on the boards.

In the fourth quarter, the Lady'Dogs finally took over, scoring 17 of the first 20 points in the frame to complete the rally.

Vernon Tarver can be reached at vtarver@nwadg.com or on Twitter @NWAVernon

Sports on 03/03/2015

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