FORT SMITH – Lamont Frazier could not ask for a better start to the 6A-West season on the road against Fort Smith Southside.
Rogers dominated the Mavericks in every phase to capture the seemingly easy 56-35 conference victory at Southside Arena Tuesday night.
The Rogers' lead was as large at 54-22 with four minutes left, invoking the AAA Sportsmanship Rule, before Southside finished the game with a late flurry.
"I thought everyone pulled together and showed how well we could play," Rogers Coach Frazier said. "It wasn't one or two players, but everyone tonight did their job and executed in all phases of the game."
Eight of the 10 players that played in the game for Rogers scored, including three in double figures. Graycen Cash scored a game-high 13 while Nick Quinn chipped in with 11 and Joel Garner added 10.
The Mounties forced 16 turnovers through three quarters when they built their big lead.
Southside Coach Stewart Adams was impressed with the Mounties' defensive play.
"We knew Rogers was a really good defensive team," Adams said. "Still, we didn't execute or play well together on offense. We were not clicking on any cylinders tonight. We fully expect to go out and play better than that. We have a lot of things to work on."
Xander Naegle paced the Mavericks with 10 points.
Rogers began to pull away after leading 14-8 after one quarter. The Mounties opened the quarter with a 13-2 run to build a 27-10 lead midway through the second quarter, five of those points coming from Quinn. Rogers then finished the quarter with a 6-0 spurt, the last points on a Quinn drive for a commanding 33-14 halftime lead.
To start the second half, Rogers opened with another scoring spurt, this time 9-4 capped by a Jansen Garner layup, to open up a 42-18 lead with 3:18 left in the third quarter.
The Mounties then put the game away early in the fourth quarter with 10-0 run in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, including four from Quinn, to give Rogers its biggest lead of the game at 54-22.
Rogers will stay on the road Friday night with a trip to Fayetteville while Southside will be at Springdale.