Springdale Har-Ber does ‘dirty work’ to beat Rogers
6A-WEST BOYS SPRINGDALE HAR-BER 62, ROGERS 53
ROGERS — Springdale Har-Ber Coach Tommy Deffebaugh told his players Tuesday night that playing together and doing the dirty work were keys to winning.
The Wildcats did both in the final minutes to earn a 6253 victory over Rogers on the road and clinch the 6A-West Conference title Tuesday night.
Har-Ber (21-3, 12-1 6A-West) allowed one field goal over the final four-plus minutes and outscored the Mounties 12-3 to close the game.
Deffebaugh was proud of the way his team came together late in the game.
“For our kids to stick together, and I thought in the last part of that fourth quarter we exemplified a lot of team work,” he said. “We made some mistakes, but we kept each other up. We pat each other on the back. We pat each other on the butt. We just persevered and hung in there.”
Drew Miller’s three-pointer from the top of the key tied the game at 50-50 with 4:46 remaining, but the Mounties managed only a Derek Hobbs’ three-pointer with a little more than a minute left the rest of the way.
Senior Lawson Jenkins led the way with a team-high 22 points, but it was his putback basket that gave the Wildcats a four-point lead with under three minutes to play. Har-Ber got three shots at it before Jenkins cleaned it up.
Deffebaugh has told his team all season that what he calls “the dirty work” — such as rebounding — is a key to victory.
“I told them we gotta have everybody fighting their tail ends off on the glass,” Deffebaugh said. “In order to win on the road, you’ve gotta get on the glass and you’ve gotta make your free throws.
“And sure enough JaJuan Boyd makes free throws at the end, Lawson got that big putback. So it takes all those things to win on the road and win a conference championship.”
Moments earlier Boyd, who added 17 points, drew a charging foul that wiped out the potential game-tying basket.
Rogers (20-4, 9-4) trailed by double digits in the first half but pulled within 34-28 at halftime thanks to the work of Will Liddell. He finished with a game-high 28 points, but 21 of those came in the first half. Hobbs was also in double figures with 12.