Basketball: Heritage and Van Buren split

ROGERS -- Rogers Heritage never led against Van Buren until the final seconds of the third quarter, but the War Eagles never trailed in the fourth quarter, holding on for a big 37-34 7A-West Conference win Friday night at War Eagle Arena. Ryan Giesen hit two free throws with 4.2 seconds left and the War Eagles (14-9, 6-4 7A-West) held on as Van Buren's running 3-pointer to tie banged off the rim as time expired. Heritage climbed into a third-place tie with Van Buren (13-10, 6-4) and avenged an earlier road loss to the Pointers with the win. The War Eagles finished the third quarter with a 7-0 surge to take a 29-27 lead. Bryce Breedlove's steal and layup gave Heritage its first lead with 12 seconds left in the quarter. The War Eagles never trailed again. Van Buren tied the game at 29 on Jordan West's steal and layup early in the fourth quarter, but 6-4 junior Seth Stanley scored four straight for a 33-29 lead with 3:43 left. Van Buren got within 35-34 on 6-7 K.J. Stewart's layup with 30 seconds left. West, who led all scorers with 16, missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer with less than 10 seconds left and Giesen secured the rebound. Heritage coach Tom Olsen said once his team got the lead, he was going to spread the floor and make the Pointers' big man, Stewart, come away from the basket. The War Eagles burned almost two minutes before Stanley scored with 1:27 left to push their lead to three. "Van Buren is hard to score against," Olsen said. "We were gonna make that that big guy come away from the basket. They are real physical and they do a good job of playing defense without fouling. We shoot free throws pretty good and we were trying to do something to get to the line and they just weren't fouling us. "It's a great win for us against a really, really good team." Stanley and Ty Olsen led Heritage with 10 points each. Stanley scored eight in the second half and six in the fourth quarter. West was Van Buren's lone player in double figures, hitting four 3-pointers. Beau Beckner added nine. Van Buren coach Austin Trembley said Van Buren was just a little tougher. "To be honest, they 100 percent out-grinded us," said Trembley, whose team led 19-15 at halftime but was outrebouned 28-26 for the game. "I'll go watch the film, but I'd be shocked if they didn't get a vast majority of the 50-50 balls. When the ball's in the air, they wanted it way more than we did. I can't normally say that about our team, but tonight we weren't ready to play. "It comes down to toughness when you've got two evenly matched teams, which I believe we are. I'm gonna give Tom and his kids all the credit." Girls Van Buren 57, Rogers Heritage 21 The Lady Pointers jumped in front 14-2 after one quarter and never looked back. Senior Lani Snowden led three in double figures for Van Buren (18-4, 9-1) with a game-high 14 points. Taylar Sutton added 12 points, while Jamilyn Kinney chipped in 11. The Lady Pointers led 40-18 after three quarters and opened the fourth quarter with a 10-0 spurt to invoke the running clock. Parker Combs led Heritage (6-17, 0-10) with five points. Van Buren plays host to Rogers High on Tuesday, while Fayetteville visits Heritage. Girls Van Buren 57, Rogers Heritage 21 Van Buren: 14-12-14-17 - 57 Heritage: 2-9-7-3 - 21 Van Buren (18-4, 9-1): Snowden 14, Sutton 12, Kinney 11, Jennen 7, Myers 6, Sandoval 5, Evans 2 Rogers Heritage (6-17, 0-10): Combs 5, Richardson 4, Watkins 3, Rohrbough 3, Kinnamon 3, Lakis 2, Beutler 1. Boys Rogers Heritage 37, Van Buren 34 Van Buren: 9-10-8-7 - 34 Heritage: 6-9-14-8 - 37 Van Buren (13-10, 6-4): West 16, Beckner 9, Kindrix 5, Stewart 4, Rogers Heritage (14-9, 6-4): Olsen 10, Stanley 10, Moss 6, Giesen 4, Lowrey 3, Cooper 2, Breedlove 2.

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BASKETBALL: HERITAGE AND VAN BUREN SPLIT

PAUL BOYD

NWA Democrat-Gazette | 2/11/2017