Rogers, Heritage play quick rematch

It’s a rare occasion when a 6A-West Conference basketball team plays one of its counterparts, then has a rematch with that team on such short notice.

It’s the situation the Rogers Lady Mounties face when they travel to crosstown rival Rogers Heritage for tonight’s regularly scheduled game. It comes only five days after the two teams squared off for a makeup game at Mountie Arena, and Heritage came away with a 48-46 victory.

“It’s a little different,” Rogers Coach Preston Early said. “It presents some unique challenges in that, but it also presents some advantages too. For us, we didn’t have an opponent Friday, so our preps have stayed the same. We’re looking at what we can adjust from when we played them Thursday. For them, they had to prepare to play Springdale on Friday.

“It’s a little bit of an awkward deal for both of us. In this time of year, you have to be ready for this type of stuff because we’ve not gotten into snow makeups. When those scenarios happen, honestly, you just knock out what has happened before other than what you’ve learned from it and focus on the task that’s ahead of you.”

The usual bragging rights are on the line tonight, but since the second half of conference play is under way the teams will begin to turn their attention more toward the league standings and see where they stand as far as their postseason hopes are concerned.

Rogers (9-12, 2-6) and Heritage are now jockeying for sixth place in the conference standings and the last postseason spot, while Bentonville West and Fort Smith Southside are lingering a game back. Since Heritage won the first meeting, Rogers will try to even the odds tonight and avoid a sweep, especially since the first tiebreak is how teams fared in head-to-head matchups.

“In that sense, when you talk playoff scenarios and conference races, it’s a really important battle,” Early said. “We’ve made no bones about it. We’ve told our players as well, and I’m sure [Heritage Coach] Josh [Laymon] has with his team.

“Honestly, it’s early in the year and anything can happen. But we really need to at least get even with them with a split right here. It would be big for us. We don’t ever want to approach anything like it’s all or nothing because that would discount the next seven games, but there should be a sense of urgency with our girls and a level of focus, and I hope there will be.”

Three other 6A-West games are slated tonight as Fort Smith Southside travels to Fayetteville, Springdale Har-Ber journeys to Bentonville West and Bentonville heads to Springdale.

The most intriguing boys matchup of the night could be a 5A-West Conference battle in Alma as the league-leading Airedales (13-8, 6-0) host Van Buren (16-6, 5-1) to close out the first half of league play, with first-place implications on the line. The game was originally scheduled for Jan. 16 but was moved to tonight — originally an open date for the entire conference — because of inclement weather.

Meanwhile, Pea Ridge (21-4, 8-2) travels to Gravette (15-5, 8-2) for a 4A-1 Conference game to see which team will claim sole possession of second place behind league leader Farmington. Pea Ridge won the first meeting 68-40 in a game played Jan. 18 in Blackhawk Arena.