Fayetteville pulls away from Heritage

Fayetteville senior Caleb Finney was strong inside, pouring in a game-high 27 points, but sophomore Collin Cooper was also huge from the perimeter in the fourth quarter to help the Purple Bulldogs pull away for a 56-41 win over Rogers Heritage on Tuesday night at War Eagle Arena. Basketball: Fayetteville pulls away from Heritage with strong fourth quarter By Paul Boyd Posted: February 15, 2017 at 1 a.m. NWA Democrat-Gazette/FLIP PUTTHOFF Rogers Heritage’s Kayla Richardson (21) takes a shot as Fayetteville’s Jasmine Franklin goes for the block Tuesday at Rogers Heritage. Zoom NWA Democrat-Gazette/FLIP PUTTHOFF Rogers Heritage’s Kayla Richardson (21) takes a shot as Fayetteville’s Jasmine Franklin goes for the block Tuesday at Rogers Heritage. ROGERS -- Fayetteville senior Caleb Finney was strong inside, pouring in a game-high 27 points, but sophomore Collin Cooper was also huge from the perimeter in the fourth quarter to help the Purple Bulldogs pull away for a 56-41 win over Rogers Heritage on Tuesday night at War Eagle Arena. Cooper keyed an 8-0 spurt to start the fourth quarter with a pair of deep 3-pointers to push Fayetteville's lead to double digits and the War Eagles never recovered. Fayetteville coach Kyle Adams said it was one of his team's better efforts for four quarters this season as the Purple'Dogs won their third straight game. Cooper's big 3-pointers were just one of several high points for the Purple Bulldogs, Adams said. "He's not afraid of a big moment," Adams said of Cooper. "That speaks highly of a sophomore, but he's not a sophomore now. He knows his role on this team and he's one of our better shooters. And if he's open, he's got the green light. He can shoot the basketball." Fayetteville (10-13, 5-6 7A-West) led 37-35 entering the fourth quarter, but Cooper, a 6-foot sophomore sandwiched 3-pointers around a Finney bucket inside to give the Purple'Dogs a 45-35 lead with a little more than six minutes left in the game. It was Cooper's only points of the game. Heritage (14-10, 6-5) got no closer than eight the rest of the game. Heritage coach Tom Olsen said Cooper's 3-pointers drained the War Eagles' momentum. "We had a really good third quarter and got back in it," said Olsen, whose team trailed by nine at halftime. "But that kind of deflated us. We got down a couple possessions and never really recovered. Those shots were huge. He was open, but they were deep. "It seemed like every time we made a shot we had some kind of malfunction execution-wise. We've got to execute better. That's on me and we'll execute better going into the next game." Junior Seth Stanley was Heritage's only player in double figures with 22. But Finney was also Fayetteville's only player in double figures and caused Heritage all kinds of trouble mostly inside. The slender 6-4 senior showed good footwork around the basket, but Adams was also pleased with how his teammates looked for him, too. "He's very good in there," Adams said. "He's good in the post, he just doesn't have a lot of weight to him. He's got to be a little finesse and I thought he did a great job. But the most important thing to me is we got the ball to him really well. We entered the ball at the high post. He dove and got the all. I thought Quinn Schach took two big charges for us inside. All in all, I thought we played extremely well." Girls Fayetteville 75, Rogers Heritage 36 The 7A-West leading Lady Purple Bulldogs jumped to a 19-2 first-quarter lead and never looked back to improve to 24-2 overall and remain undefeated in the 7A-West. Freshman Sasha Goforth and senior Ashley Breathitt led Fayetteville (11-0 in 7A-West) with nine points each. Freshman Wyvette Mayberry chipped in eight off the bench. The Lady Purple'Dogs led 23-5 after one quarter and 51-11 at halftime. Sydney Kinnamon led Heritage (6-18, 0-11) with a game-high 13 points. Fayetteville hosts Springdale Har-Ber on Friday, while Heritage travels to Bentonville West.

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Fayetteville High School Athletics

FAYETTEVILLE PULLS AWAY FROM HERITAGE

PAUL BOYD

Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette | 2/15/2017

PHOTO CREDIT: Fayetteville High School Athletics