FAYETTEVILLE RALLY IN THE FOURTH QUARTER TO EDGE ROGERS HERITAGE

Fayetteville used a big fourth quarter Tuesday night to stay in a first-place tie in the 7A-West Conference. The Purple Bulldogs held Rogers Heritage scoreless for almost seven minutes in the fourth quarter, but still had to hold on for a 49-46 win in Bulldog Arena. Fayetteville (16-7, 9-2 7A-West) struggled from the free-throw line, but senior RJ Johnson hit two big ones with 5.7 seconds left to push his team's lead to three. Heritage drew a foul, but missed the front end of a one-and-one and Fayetteville cleared the rebound and held it until time expired. The Purple'Dogs went on a 12-0 fourth-quarter run to turn a six-point deficit to a six-point lead on Jon Conley's fast-break layup with more than two minutes left. But Bryce Breedlove's 3-pointer, Heritage's first points of the quarter, pulled the War Eagles (17-7, 6-5) within 46-43 with 1:09 left. Seth Stanley, who led all scorers with 19, pulled Heritage within 47-46 with a 3-pointer with seven seconds left, but the War Eagles would not score again. Fayetteville coach Kyle Adams, who missed just his third game in 37 years last week because of illness, praised his team's overall defense. The Purple'Dogs forced 17 Heritage turnovers that turned into 18 Fayetteville points. "Hey, a win's a win, we'll take it," Adams said. "Everybody that stepped out there did a really good job on the defensive end." Fayetteville remained tied for the league lead with Springdale Har-Ber and now will hit the road to take on the Wildcats with first place on the line Friday night. Darius Bowers led a balanced scoring attack for Fayetteville with 14 point and a team-high nine rebounds., while Colin Cooper added 13. Dawson Peek and Bryce Breedlove added nine each for Heritage. Stanley also finished with a double-double with a game-high 13 rebounds. Fayetteville finished 9 of 20 from the foul line for the game and just 6 of 14 in the fourth quarter, but that had no effect on other aspects of the game, Adams said. "Sometimes it affects everything," Adams said. "They kept their heads in it and knew what they had to do. It turned into a strategy game the last minute and a half or so and I thought our kids handled that really well. Those are situations we didn't handle real well early in the conference season. Now, they can play and think, it's not just play the same way all the time. I was proud of them for that." Girls: Fayetteville 62, Rogers Heritage 25 The Lady Purple Bulldogs held the Lady War Eagles jumped ahead 17-0 to start the game and never looked back. Fayetteville (19-3, 11-0 7A-West) posted its 11th consecutive win and wasn't really pushed. Sophomore Coriah Beck led all scorers with 16 points, including 10 in the first three-plus minutes of the game. Jasmine Franklin added 11 and Sasha Goforth 10 for the Lady Purple'Dogs, who led 37-10 at halftime. Beck made 6-of-7 shots from the floor to go with three assists, two steals and five rebounds in less than two quarters of action. Goforth and Franklin tied with a game-high seven rebounds, also each playing less than a half. Lady Purple'Dogs coach Vic Rimmer said Beck has made tremendous strides in her game from the start of the season. But Franklin and Goforth continue to improve as well. "Coriah has watched so much film, I'm so proud of her," Rimmer said. "Where she was at the start of the year and where she is now as far as making decisions with the ball in her hand and her game has elevated more. She can finish at the rim. Her jump shot's gotten better. She's shoot the three really well and she finds people so well. "Goforth, she's not just a 3-point shoot. She's good off the bounce and she's developing into a really good passer off the bounce. Jasmine's just great around the rim on both ends of the floor. But she passes the ball so well. Those three are invaluable because of the large amount of quality things they do for us." Kayla Richardson led Rogers Heritage (5-18, 0-11) with six points.

FAYETTEVILLE RALLY IN THE FOURTH QUARTER TO EDGE ROGERS HERITAGE

Photo Credit: Andy Shupe

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