Changes fuel War Eagles’ surge

Rogers Heritage is right in the thick of the 7A-West Conference race at the halfway point and Logan Clines has been a big part of the War Eagles’ recent surge.

The 6-foot sophomore was inserted into the starting lineup three games ago and Heritage (15-5, 4-3 7A-West) has won two of those three big games. Clines has given the War Eagles a boost offensively, averaging more than 10 points a game over those three starts.

“He’s a real competitive kid and really athletic and when you add those two together you get a pretty good player,” Heritage coach Tom Olsen said. “We had to grow him up a little bit and it did that through some JV minutes. It was time last week. He had earned it and it’s paid dividends.”

Another change that allowed Olsen to insert Clines into the starting lineup is that Seth Stanley has bought into being more of a post defender. The 6-foot-5 senior is known for his perimeter skills and averages 20.5 points per game, but he’s moved around the basket more defensively now. Heritage now starts five guards, despite Stanley’s size.

“He came into the office one day and said ‘I think we would be better if I could play defense more around the basket,’” Olsen said. “I said ‘I agree with that but I don’t want to get you in the muck and mire.’ We went into Bentonville and I said we’re going to start there and we’ll see.”

Heritage opens the second half tied for second with Bentonville West and travels to Springdale High tonight. The War Eagles won the first meeting 49-43.