Lady Panthers fall to Rogers, bounce back against Huntsville
The Rogers’ girls basketball team held Siloam Springs scoreless in the second quarter and outscored the Lady Panthers 12-0 to build a large lead.
Siloam Springs responded with a better second half, but it wasn’t enough to catch the Lady Mounties, who defeated the Lady Panthers 55-34 on Tuesday, Nov. 28, inside Panther Activity Center.
“I thought defensively we were really good,” said Rogers coach Preston Early. “We thought if we stayed disciplined and true to what we want to do, I felt like we could maybe give them a hard time. I felt like we were able to get some turnovers when we needed them, and it took some pressure off us. I felt like early on we played really well together.”
Rogers’ Kiara Owens scored 10 of her game-high 22 points in the first quarter as Rogers took an early 15-9 lead.
Morgan Jones had two early baskets in the first for Siloam Springs and Kaidence Prendergast hit a 3-pointer, while Emily Keehn also had a bucket.
But that was it for the scoring in the first half for Siloam Springs, which has shown early on it can go through offensive droughts.
The scoring lull ended with 5:39 left in the third quarter when Cenzi Johnson knocked down a pair of free throws, but Rogers led 33-11 at that point.
Rogers led 45-19 going into the fourth quarter.
Siloam Springs went on a 15-5 run to open the fourth quarter and cut Rogers’ lead to 50-34 after Prendergast hit a pair of free throws with 45.3 seconds remaining in the game.
Rogers ended the game with a banked 3-pointer from Taylor Chrisman and two free throws from Cate Jackson.
“It’s a little bit of the immaturity, in terms of our youth and inexperience where it took us two
quarters to realize, OK this is how officials are calling it, here’s how physical it’s going to be played,” said Siloam Springs coach Beau Tillery. “And that was as close to a conference game as we’ve played to this point in terms of the physicality and how much the officials will let you play. It was good for us. It was a learning experience, but we’ve got to be a little bit more mature, a little bit quicker to not wait till the third quarter to say hey we’re going to match that physicality now.”
Brooklyn Owens added 16 points for the Lady Mounties.
Keehn led Siloam Springs with 10 points, while Johnson and Prendergast each had seven points. Avery Speed hit two 3-pointers off the bench and had six points, while Jones had four points.
Siloam Springs 41, Huntsville 33
The Lady Panthers rallied in the fourth quarter to take a victory at Huntsville on Friday.
Huntsville led 7-6 after the first quarter and 17-9 at halftime.
Siloam Springs cut into the Huntsville lead and pulled within 26-21 going into the fourth quarter.
The Lady Panthers then outscored the Lady Eagles 20-7 in the fourth period.
Emily Keehn led Siloam Springs with 14 points, 11 of which came in the second half.
Cenzi Johnson scored all eight of her points in the second half, while Morgan Jones scored all eight of her points in the fourth quarter.
Kaidence Prendergast, Kenlee Moore and Jasmin Labitad each had three points, while Erika Ellis had two.
Maggie Richie led Huntsville with 13 points, while Julie Emitt had eight.
UP NEXT
The Lady Panthers were scheduled to begin play in the Jerry Oquin Tournament in Inola, Okla., on Tuesday against Collinsville. Results were not available at presstime.
The Lady Panthers will play against at either 7 p.m. Thursday or 7 p.m. Friday against the winner/ loser of the Monday game between host Inola, Okla., and Victory Christian. The tournament will conclude on Saturday.