Lady Mounties win

Rogers High rallies late to get tough win against Siloam Springs

Rogers High girls basketball coach Preston Early’s team rallied from a double-digit deficit to claim a 46-42 win over Siloam Springs in King Arena.

ROGERS — Rogers High struggled to make plays in a pair of close losses in Joplin, Mo., last weekend, but that changed Tuesday night.

Lady Mounties girls basketball coach Preston Early saw his team show growth as it rallied from a double-digit deficit and claim a 46-42 win over Siloam Springs in King Arena.

Rogers (5-4) used a 13-2 flurry in the final minutes, including making six straight free throws in the final 51.3 seconds en route to the win.

Early said his team made plays late to get the win after failing to do some of the same things in back-to-back losses over the weekend.

“The reason they were able to do that in the fourth quarter is there’s a persistence that a winner has to have,” Early said. “And I thought we had that. But I also thought it benefited us this weekend where we were in some close games and we didn’t make the plays. We got burned and frustrated from it, but we didn’t get discouraged.

“We figured out how to have a little mental toughness in those spots, and I thought that showed up down the stretch.”

The Lady Mounties also had trouble from the foul line, making just seven of 13 before Madison Loyd and Courtney Storey combined to go sixof-six.

Loyd scored a team-high 17 points, including three 3-pointers, while 6-0 Ally Figenskau added 10 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots. It was Figenskau’s basket with 2:21 left that gave Rogers the lead for good 4038.

Amber Covington also added five points and had 10 rebounds off the bench for Rogers. She helped the Lady Mounties from a 29-19 deficit to tie the game on Covington’s rebound bucket less than a minute into the fourth quarter.

Siloam Springs (3-7) led by as many as 10 in the third quarter and held a 38-33 lead with more than four minutes left. But Rogers got a steal by London Hatch, which led to Storey’s 3-pointer that sparked the late run.

Lady Panthers coach Tim Rippy said his team must learn how to finish a game.

“We’ve gotta execute down the stretch better,” Rippy said. “We do the things sometimes that get us lead and put us in position, but we didn’t finish. We allowed them to hang right there within striking distance and sure enough they took advantage of that. They hurt us attacking the basket late in the fourth quarter and getting second-chance points.”

Vaughn led all scorers with 22 points for Siloam Springs, but no other Lady Panther managed double figures. Siloam Springs .... 6 7 18 11 — 42 Rogers .............. 11 2 16 17 — 46 Siloam Springs (3-7): Vaughn 22, Noel 7, Price 5, Hollenbeck 4, Harried 2, Buckminster 2.

Rogers (5-4): Loyd 17, Figenskau 10, Storey 8, Covington 5, Hatch 3, McConell 3.

SPRINGDALE HAR-BER 52, CLARKSVILLE 50

The Lady Wildcats earned a close road win to climb to .500 heading into a short holiday break, rallying from a first-quarter deficit.

Maci Mains scored 19 points and had four assists to lead Har-Ber (5-5). Savanna Collins added 18 for the Lady Wildcats to go along with four steals. Grace Dougan led Clarksville (5-4) with 16 and Alexie Tibbs added 13.

Har-Ber will be off until Dec. 27 when it competes in the annual Neosho (Mo.) Holiday Classic.