Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Tigers Thinking Next Time
GRAVETTE WINS LOW-SCORING GAME
PRAIRIE GROVE — Over the past few years, Prairie Grove (3-5, 3-1) has had some notoriously slow starts to the boys basketball season coupled with strong finishes in conference play.
The trend didn’t look any different Dec. 13 with the Tigers suffering a 42-33 loss at home to Gravette ( 5-1, 3- 0). While acknowleding Gravette played good defense, Prairie Grove coach Steve Edmiston pinned the loss on a lack of patience in executing offensively.
“They did a pretty good job defensively in the half-court,” Edmiston said. “But I think if we would have been more patient the shots would have been there. We weren’t patient enough offensively. We’ve got to really settle in. It was a low-scoring game. Every possession counts.”
Gravette coach Matt Bush said defensive rebounding was a key in keeping Prairie Grove away from the offensive glass.
“I think our kids did a good job within our system,” Bush said. “We limited them to one shot, that was the biggest part.”
Bush also saw problems early on with the Lions on the offensive end of the court, saying, “Our kids played well offensively, we just needed to get
offensively, we just needed to get a little more spacing. I thought our spacing was bad. Once we got a little more spacing, we did better.”
There were three lead changes in the first quarter that ended with the Tigers ahead, 13-7, after Will Pridmore’s bucket in the lane. The second quarter was disastrous for the Tigers, who were outscored 14- 3 in the period. Back-to-back driving layups by Kelton Trembley, who led the Lions with 13 points , the second a coast- to- coast trip after clearing a rebound, put Gravette ahead, 16-14, with 3:16 to go in the first half. Prairie Grove’s solitary field goal of the quarter came near the final minute when Cameron Simmons, who led the Tigers with 12 points, took a feed out of the left corner to score a layup.
Gravette led 21-16 at halftime and went on a 9-2 run to open the third quarter capped by Wembly’s steal and full-court drive when he again beat all the Tigers in transition for a layup. Prairie Grove’s DeMarkus Cooper hit a soft shot in the paint, then again positioned himself in the low box as Disney passed from the right wing to Braden Risner in the high post. Risner immediately whirled and fed Cooper for an easy deuce. But, just as the Tiger big man was beginning to assert himself inside, he was quickly whistled for his third personal.
Of the 15 fouls called against Prairie Grove in the contest, 5 were against Cooper, including an offensive foul away from the ball that resulted in a crucial Tiger turnover late in the game. The first foul of the second half wasn’t called against Gravette until 1:03 had elapsed in the fourth quarter. Simmons and Disney complained about no- calls on drives to the basket, the second of which resulted in a 4-point swing. After Disney missed and fell down out of the play, Andrew Miller pressed a 5-on-4 advantage by taking the rebound and going in for a layup and a 33-26 Lion lead with 5:08 remaining in the fourth.
Prairie Grove tried to rally with a 5- 0 mini run. Disney had several assists. He penetrated and kicked the ball out to D.J. Pearson, who snapped a trifecta from the right wing, breaking a Tiger scoring drought of 2:56. Following that, Risner’s quick hands stole the dribble and drew a foul. Disney scored cutting to the basket on the in-bounds play, trimming Gravette’s lead to 36-31, but Wishon, Duke and Wembly combined to go 6 of 6 at the foul line to secure a 42-33 conference win. The frustrating scoring ineptitude has the Tigers thinking next time.
“In time, we’ll work the kinks out,” Edmiston said. “We’ll have better days offensively. Defensively, I thought we were OK. We were just a little stagnant offensively.”
Wishon and Miller added scored 10 points apiece for Gravette.