GENTRY — Gentry clawed and scratched in the first two quarters to match Rogers-Heritage point for point Friday night but the final two quarters were a different story.

After being tied at halftime, the Lady War Eagles limited Gentry to just two field goals in the second half and dominated the boards to pull away for a 42-24 victory in their season opener.

Heritage (1-0) utilized a match-up zone to limit Gentry to just 2-of-9 shooting from the floor in the second half. The Lady War Eagles also out rebounded the Lady Pioneers 19-7 in the final two quarters.

“I told them we needed to get some points off our defense, and we finally did off our zone stuff,” said Heritage girls basketball coach Kevin Ramey. “To our kids credit, I thought we did a better job of moving and communicating in the zone than we did in our man defense.”

In addition to holding Gentry to 22 percent shooting, Heritage also forced 14 second-half turnovers.

The Lady War Eagles put the game away in the fourth quarter as junior Brittany Ward poked the ball and found Katie Borman for a lay-up to start the final eight minutes.

Borman’s basket started a 19-2 spurt that turned Heritage’s 25-16 lead into a 44-18 advantage.

“When they went to the 1-2-2, it bothered us a little bit,” Gentry coach Tim Rippy said. “But give Heritage credit, they controlled the boards. We were getting one shot and out.

“In that time when we struggled to score a little bit, they got very hot. They hit some shots and it gapped the game. But we did a good job of competing and that’s something we can build on.”

Destiny Thomas led the Lady Pioneers (1-1) in points,with 9. Kaylin Cripps had 6 and Tara Arnold had 5.

Rogers Heritage 59 Gentry 22

BOYS - Rogers Heritage forced a barrage of turnovers to roll past Gentry, 59-22.

The War Eagles (1-0) started the second quarter with a 16-3 run aided by six Gentry turnovers to take control of the game. The War Eagles led 41-11 at half-time.

Chris Wiand led Gentry (0-2) with 10 points.

Sports, Pages 10 on 11/23/2011