Heritage edges Bentonville in 2 OTs

6A-WEST GIRLS

ROGERS HERITAGE 61, BENTONVILLE 58, 2OT

BENTONVILLE — Bentonville grabbed an early lead, but Rogers Heritage refused to go away, winning 61-58 in two overtimes.

The Lady War Eagles hung around to lead into halftime. Neither team wanted to relent in the second half, Heritage pushing the game to overtime twice after the Lady Tigers took control.

With 4:24 left in the fourth quarter, the teams were tied at 42-42. The Lady War Eagles took the lead 44-42 with four minutes left in the fourth quarter. With 2:16 to go Bentonville took a 46-45 advantage, but with less than a minute left the teams were tied at 48-48.

Bentonville took at time out with 15.5 seconds to play but nobody managed to score, and into overtime they went.

It was back and forth, but with 2:41 left in overtime Bentonville took a 50-48 advantage. Heritage hit a free throw and then Bentonville called a time out with 33.6 seconds left in the first overtime, but again nobody could score pushing into a second overtime tied at 52-52.

Heritage struck first hitting a three-pointer to make the score 55-52, with 1 minute, 34 seconds remaining. Heritage then scored again pushing the lead to 57-52 as they headed to the line to shoot a pair of free throws making the score 59-52 with 1.9 remaining.

Heritage was up 59-57 after Bentonville made a field goal. Bentonville got the ball back, hit a three from the corner with 58 seconds left to pull within one, giving Heritage a 59-58 lead.

Bentonville took a timeout with 23.9 seconds left, but when play resumed Heritage pushed their lead to three points with 15.1 left in double overtime and held on.

Anna Lee Kulka had 13, Sam Rhuda added 17 and Ella Campbell chipped in 10.

For Heritage, Lee led Heritage with 23, while Carlee Casteel added 13 and Toney added 12.

Rogers Heritage Coach Josh Laymon was happy with his team’s performance overall.

“The girls are progressing on the defensive end to where we’re confident we can get stops,” Laymon said. “Bentonville’s just such a difficult team to stay in front of and they have so many shooters spaced out all over the place. When we hit that first three in the second overtime I remember thinking to myself if we can get enough stops, we can win this ballgame.

“We had struggles early in the game. Coach [Tom] Halbmaier of Bentonville had such a good game plan. Now I can say Coach Stephanie Jefferies isn’t the only person on staff that’s beaten Bentonville.”