Farmington defeats Prairie Grove 58-29

FARMINGTON — Farmington didn’t stay down long after losing its first game of the year.

The Lady Cardinals built a 22-point lead in the first quarter and rolled to a 58-29 victory over Prairie Grove on Friday in the 4A-1 Conference opener at Cardinal Arena.

Makenna Vanzant scored 17 points to lead Farmington. Sophomore Trinity Johnson added 16 points while Emily Grant led Prairie Grove with nine.

Farmington led 29-7 after one quarter and 36-20 at halftime. The Lady Cardinals’ fast start was quite a contrast from Tuesday when they fell behind 20-5 and lost 55-52 at Class 5A Greenwood. Farmington shot only 34 percent for the game, including 8 of 26 on 3-point attempts.

“I thought we were very, very efficient in the first quarter tonight,” Farmington coach Brad Johnson said. “We want to get off to a good start and at Greenwood we did not. Tonight, we challenged our kids to set the tone with their energy. We needed to dominate tempo to get our fans into it and we got it going at a pretty rapid pace.”

Farmington (8-1, 1-0 4A1) rarely missed in the first quarter and the Lady Cardinals didn’t commit a turnover until there were 3 minutes, 36 seconds left in the first quarter. Four players scored in the first quarter for Farmington, including Johnson, who made consecutive 3-pointers. Vanzant had 10 points in the quarter and Madyisyn Pense added a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Prairie Grove (5-3, 0-1) cut its deficit to 13 in the second quarter behind the play of Grant, who had all nine of her points in the first half. But Farmington regained control in the third quarter behind Vanzant, who leaned in for two baskets and hit a 3-pointer to put the Lady Cardinals ahead 45-22.

“Trinity came out and hit some big shots early,” coach Johnson said of his daughter. “Makenna and (Madisyn) Pense take so much of everybody’s game plan, but the beauty of this basketball team is we’re very versatile.”

Prairie Grove ......... 7 13 2 7 — 29 Farmington ......... 29 7 9 13 — 58 Prairie Grove (5-3): Grant 9, Wynos 8, Crawford 3, Madewell 2, Elder 2, Giardino 2, Meadors 2, Rochier 1. Farmington (8-1): Vanzant 17, Johnson 16, Kersey 12, Pense 7, Roach 4, Gurrola 2.