Junior Frank Morgan provided a spark off the bench to help Fayetteville pull away late for a 68-54 win against Bentonville West at Wolverines Arena on Tuesday.

Morgan only scored four points, but his hard screen off of an inbounds play sprung Collin Cooper free for a 3-pointer that gave the Bulldogs (6-13, 3-6 in 7A-West) a 42-40 lead with under a minute remaining in the third quarter.

They never trailed again.

After helping Fayetteville repeat as Class 7A state football champions, Morgan didn't join the basketball team until December. He was used sparingly before Tuesday as he recovered from a back injury.

"Anytime we can score points, that's huge for us, and he was a catalyst for a lot of that," said Fayetteville coach Kyle Adams.

In addition to the game-changing screen, Morgan sank a pair of free throws that pushed the lead to 58-50 with two minutes, 16 seconds left in regulation. His shots began a string of eight consecutive free throws for Fayetteville and it hit 10-of-12 down the stretch to secure a much-needed 7A-West win against the Wolverines (10-12, 3-6).

"Those free throws he hit were huge for a kid who hadn't been in that situation much in a varsity game," Adams said. "He stepped up there cool as could be and knocked them both down. I was proud of him."

The win avenged Fayetteville's 59-48 loss against West on Jan. 10. The difference in this rematch was shooting and seniors, according to West coach Greg White. His first year program plays without seniors.

"I've never used that as an excuse, but a senior has a little more urgency than a sophomore," White said. "There are six games left and we weren't playing with the same urgency that they were.

"We shot it poorly at times, and a lot of that was because of their pressure."

Fayetteville senior Tyler Roth did Tyler Roth things throughout the game to finish with a game-high 22 points. He scored five straight points, including a traditional three-point play, to help erase the Wolverines' 10-0 run to open the game. The Bulldogs would tie the score at 14-14 when Brennon Lewis got a steal and a dunk late in the first quarter.

"We called a timeout and got realigned a little bit, and the kids came out and played really hard after that," Adams said. "We did some good things defending the entire court, and when the defense turns up like that, we can do some good things by creating off of our defense.

"Once we got going a little bit, I felt OK."

Caleb Finney had 15 points for Fayetteville while Cooper contributed 11. Collin Blackburn and Gabe Hornsby each had 12 and Cobe Muldrew added 11 for the Wolverines.

Bentonville West travels to Springdale on Friday for another key conference game while Fayetteville hosts Rogers High.
