FORT SMITH -- The Springdale Har-Ber Wildcats made good use of an open date early in the week.
Friday, the Wildcats scored on their first five trips down the floor and eased to a 65-41 win against Fort Smith Southside at the Barn to bounce back from their first 6A-West loss last week.
"We had a little time to work on things," Har-Ber coach Tommy Deffebaugh said. "We got beat a week ago, and we didn't have a game on Tuesday so it was back to the drawing board as coaches say. We worked on some things, worked on some fundamentals, just trying to get our offense in sync. Our guard play wasn't very good the last two games."
Friday, Har-Ber (14-3, 4-1) scored on its first five possessions with Cameron Mains opening and closing a 13-0 run with three-pointers. Miles Rolfe also hit a trey and added two free throws with Jacob Fotenopulos scoring inside.
"We wanted to our have guards come out and play well," Deffebaugh said. "They started the game really well, and got us started. Cameron made some buckets right off the bat, and Miles did his thing. We got our guards going."
Har-Ber led 19-7 after a quarter and bumped it to 26-9 with 6:23 left in the half behind another trey by Mains along with buckets inside by Kase Chambless and Mains.
Consecutive baskets inside by Chambless, Rolfe and Nate Kingsbury built Har-Ber's lead to 32-11 with 3:01 left in the half.
"I'm so proud of our bigs right now," Deffebaugh said. "Nate, and Kase and Jake Fotenopulos have played so well the last three or four games."
Southside (6-11, 0-5) had a scoring run late in the half to trim Har-Ber's lead back to 32-19.
Dmitri Lloyd scored inside, Evan Chance scored twice inside and Yazed Taforo had a stickback for an 8-0 run, but it was the biggest spurt of the game for the Mavericks.
"We had an opportunity there to take some momentum at the half," Southside coach Stewart Adams said. "We got an offensive rebound and some turnovers. We wasted an opportunity to have some momentum there."
Har-Ber seized the momentum back quickly in the third quarter, though, with a 9-3 run in the first four minutes.
Mains finished with 19 points behind three treys, Kingsburgy had 13 points mostly inside but with a three-pointer in the third quarter, and Rolfe had 13 points both inside and with a 3-pointer.
"Any coach likes that kind of balance," Deffebaugh said. "You have to start inside first, and see what we get on the perimeter. It worked well tonight. Our interior guys scored well and then our perimeter handled the ball and scored. It was good to see our guys have some fun."
Har-Ber hit at least 50 percent from the floor each of the first three quarters, converting 7-of-12 attempts in the opening quarter, 7-of-14 in the second quarter to take a 34-19 lead and then 8-for-12 in the third quarter to go up, 52-33.
"They came out and made shots," Adams said. "When they were left open, they made us pay for it. When they're shooting like that, it's hard to beat."
Taforo led Southside with nine points, much less than the 27 he had in Har-Ber's 61-50 win over the Mavericks in the Coca-Cola Christmas Classic in December.
"Our focus was to contain Taforo," Deffebaugh said. "He killed us down here in the tournament. I told the guys that if he went for 27 again, it wasn't going to be a good practice on Sunday."
Har-Ber was also playing its second game without 6-6 senior Jermaine Tilford, who is no longer with the team.