Rogers uses 3-point shooting to down Heritage

NWA Democrat-Gazette/BEN GOFF @NWABENGOFF Van Rhame of Rogers secures a rebound vs Jafer Raza (left) and Jason Kimball of Rogers Heritage Friday, Feb. 22, 2019, in King Arena at Rogers High School.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/BEN GOFF @NWABENGOFF Van Rhame of Rogers secures a rebound vs Jafer Raza (left) and Jason Kimball of Rogers Heritage Friday, Feb. 22, 2019, in King Arena at Rogers High School.

ROGERS -- Rogers High's Drew Miller was running back on defense in the first quarter when he heard his coach Lamont Frazier yelling in his ear. Miller had just hit his second 3-pointer of the quarter, and Frazier wanted to remind him of something.

"Keep shooting it. Every time they back off of you, shoot it," Frazier said.

Miller went on to score a game-high 17 points and hit five 3-pointers to lead a sharp-shooting Mounties team to a 63-50 win over the War Eagles on Tuesday night. Rogers connected on eight shots from behind the arc, and Karsen Uecker connected on the rare four-point play, which blew the game open for the Mounties.

"There were two young men who I thought played to their abilities. I thought they let things come to them," Frazier said. "That was Drew Miller and Karsen Uecker."

Miller and Uecker combined for 12 of the team's 25 points in the second quarter, which turned out to be the turning point in the game for the Mounties. Rogers went on an 8-0 run to start the period and took its first and last lead of the night.

Heritage opened up the game shooting almost perfect from the floor in the first quarter. The team went 8-of-10, and Jason Kimball made all four of his 3-point attempts in the quarter.

But with 16 seconds left in the first, Heritage starting point guard Ernesto Rodriguez went down with an apparent knee injury. Rodriguez, who had been playing on a torn ACL for most of the season, had to be helped off the court by two Heritage personnel.

His loss was a huge blow to the War Eagles, which looked poised to upset one of the top teams in Class 6A West. Heritage struggled to get its offense going without Rodriguez and only made two baskets in the period.

"It limits what we can do offensively because (Ernesto) can enter the ball into a lot of what we do offensively and a lot of our set offenses," Heritage coach Tom Olsen said. "When we don't have him there, it really limits us."

Rogers ends the season on a four-game winning streak with the win, and the team will carry that momentum into its first-round playoff matchup against Little Rock Central on Feb. 28.

"With everything that was on the line in terms of for us, we had to come out and we had to play well," Frazier said. "We had to do some things right in order to feel like when we left out of here tonight, win or lose, we had something to build on going into next week."

Rogers 63, Rogers Heritage 50

Rogers Heritage 20 5 12 13 -- 50

Rogers 16 25 11 11 -- 63

Rogers Heritage (10-16, 5-9): Kimball 16, Clines 10, Ingram 7, Furuseth 4, Rodriguez 4, Carpenter 3, Hill 3, Henderson 3

Rogers (20-6, 10-4): Miller 17, Uecker 11, Voigt 10, Paschal 7, Hobbs 7, Rhame 6, Liddell 3

Van Buren 63, Springdale 54

Logan Brothers scored 16 of his 23 points in the first half to lead Van Buren past Springdale.

Gary Phillips added 17 points for Van Buren while Vincent Mason scored 22 to lead Springdale. Despite the loss, Springdale (11-14, 5-9) will still advance to the state tournament as the No. 6 seed from the 6A-West.

Van Buren (6-20, 2-12) started the game with the hot hand and led 14-0 before Chops Sanders scored for Springdale with three minutes left in the first quarter. Brothers ended the first half with a long 3-pointer, then hit another one in the third quarter to put the Pointers ahead 42-29.

Van Buren 19 19 10 15 -- 63

Springdale High 9 14 12 19 -- 54

Van Buren (6-20, 2-12): Brothers 23, Phillips 17, Ball 8, Gilmore 5, Moore 6, Newton 4.

Springdale (11-14, 5-9): Mason 22, Boyd 10, Henry 8, Hignite 4, Sanders 6, Robinson 2, Eckwood 2.

Bentonville West 49, Bentonville 46

With a state tournament berth on the line, Bentonville West needed to earn an unlikely victory over a Bentonville team that coasted to a 15-point victory when the squads played in January.

Some late-game heroics on the defensive end provided the extra push the Wolverines (11-15, 6-8) needed to pull out a Senior Night victory, 49-46, over their rival Tigers (20-8, 10-5).

"Three weeks ago, people were counting this team down and out, and they responded," said Bentonville West coach Greg White. "Before the game, I had nine guys from last year in the locker room. This is a program that's new, but we're so strong in our beliefs on defense, and we said, 'let's get a stop.' That's what our program is built on."

Bentonville rode a strong second-half performance from senior combo guard Connor Deffebaugh to build a 45-44 lead with fewer than 15 seconds left, and the Tigers called a timeout to draw up an inbounds play. A steal off the pass resulted in a go-ahead layup for senior guard Traven Hardiman, and then a five-second call after another timeout gave the ball right back to the Wolverines. Senior guard Dawson Bailey was fouled and made both free throws to seal West's lead.

"We talked about switching and what we'd do, and we said, 'let's just be who we are'--a tough, lockup team, and that's what we did," White said.

Dawson Bailey led his team with 15 points, while Dillon Bailey poured in 11. Senior forward Austin Conner and Hardiman scored 10 apiece to round out West's double-digit scoring. On the other side, Deffebaugh's 14 paced Bentonville, and he was joined by senior forward Michael Shanks' 13.

Bentonville West 9 19 8 13 -- 49

Bentonville 14 6 9 17 -- 46

Bentonville West: Bailey 15, Bailey 11, Conner 10, Hardiman 10, Costantini 3

Bentonville: Deffebaugh 14, Shanks 13, Simmons 5, Spencer 5, Freeman 4. Smith 3, Price 2

Fayetteville 69, Springdale Har-Ber 62

A 90-second stretch and the ability to thwart a late rally attempt resulted in Fayetteville defeating Springdale Har-Ber. The Purple'Dogs (20-5, 12-2) were presented with the 6A-West Conference Championship plaque after the game and will be the league's top seed in next week's 6A State Tournament at Bentonville West.

"It was great to have (athletic director Steve) Janski present the trophy. That was exciting," said Fayetteville coach Kyle Adams. "For whatever reason, we've struggled the past 3-4 games, but that was the best we've played in quite a while."

Following a Har-Ber (10-14, 6-8) 3-pointer by Seth Nerenberg that cut Fayetteville's lead to 42-36 with 4:30 remaining in the third quarter, the Purple'Dogs answered by scoring nine unanswered points in a 90-second span on their way to a 14-2 run.

It was fueled by five-point swing thanks to a technical on the Wildcats' bench. It was highlighted by a monster blocked shot by Tamaury Releford that led to a breakaway dunk for Austin Garrett, who transferred from Har-Ber to Fayetteville.

"The momentum is going to switch back and forth like that when you've got kids who can really shoot the 3 like (Har-Ber coach Scott Bowlin) does," Adams said. "But for us, momentum starts for us on the defensive end and we had a couple of blocks like that one that led to transition plays like that one with Austin getting a dunk."

Three 3-pointers by Cole Bishop helped the Wildcats make it interesting as they got as close as 63-57 with 2:13 remaining in regulation, but free throws by Releford and Darius Bowers sealed the victory.

Springdale Har-Ber 8 20 10 24 -- 62

Fayetteville 12 24 20 13 -- 69

Springdale Har-Ber: Bishop 15, Jenkins 13, Nurenberg 13, Bockelman 10, Howard 4, Woodward 4, Pieroni 2, Gibson 1.

Fayetteville: Releford 18, Bowers 11, Cooper 11, Garrett 11, Kinsey 5, Michna 3.

Sports on 02/23/2019

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