Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Prairie Grove Boys Use High Gear
SEASON HIGH 78 POINTS SCORED BY TIGERS AGAINST WEST FORK
WEST FORK — Prairie Grove galloped out of the gate and never looked back on the way to a seasonhigh 78 points and a decisive road win at West Fork on Jan. 16.
Prairie Grove’s intensity never let up even with leading scorer Will Pridmore saddled on the bench with two quick fouls in the game’s first 2:20. D.J. Pearson opened a 12-0 Prairie Grove spurt to start the game with a 3-pointer. Seconds later he pushed the ball up the floor and dished to John David Elder running down the lane. Elder was fouled and made both free throws. Anthony Johnson took a steal to the rim and Pridmore’s replacement, Braden Risner reset the half-court offense with an offensive rebound which set up another Elder shot in the paint. This time he missed, but Pearson cleaned up the play by putting the ball in the hoop. Johnson knocked down a trey from the right wing to cap the run.
“Right at the beginning we got off to a good start offensively,” said Prairie Grove coach Steve Edmiston. “I think if we can do that it’s going to dictate all 32 minutes of the game for us. That was our highpoint game for the year. West Fork has some pretty good skill players which is why it became the score fest that it was but I’m glad to see us offensively score that way. Offensively, we showed up tonight and we performed pretty well. We can’t get in the mindset that we’re just going to outscore people. We’ve got to keep that defensive mindset.”
West Fork rallied with a 13-7 run of its own, but Prairie Grove began the second quarter the same way they started the contest on an 8-0 run. Pearson and Pridmore hit 3-pointers and Nick Pohlman scored initiating a West Fork timeout with Prairie Grove leading, 27-13.
Prairie Grove led by as many as 19 points in the second quarter although not scoring for the last 1:49. West Fork stayed within 40-25 at the half, but they couldn’t keep Prairie Grove from getting high-percentage shots. Pridmore’s steal and outlet led Pearson perfectly for a lay-up on the fly. Demarkus Cooper fed Elder in the paint for an easy duece. After a West Fork 3-pointer, Cooper answered with an old-fashioned 3-point play driving hard yet using a soft touch in the key and adding a free throw. A minute later, Cooper assisted Pridmore going to the bucket and Prairie Grove led 49-30.
West Fork’s last gasp featured a bit of irony on a cold winter night. Mason Ramey’s 3-point play narrowed the gap to 52-37 at the 3:07 mark of the third. Wyoming’s area code is 307. As far away as that geographical distance looms beyond the horizon, West Fork was never going to get any closer.
James Millwood’s free throw began a 10-2 Prairie Grove run to close out the third. He accounted for five points during the spree including a putback in traffic and a banked-in free throw that drew encouragement from Prairie Grove athletic director Joey Sorters, who was enjoying the game with his wife Donna and son, Jackson.
“It may not be pretty, but it went in. That’s what counts,” Sorters said.
Millwood’s second free throw also took an adventurous route bouncing high off the rim before falling through the net, yet was equally effective bringing the score to 62-39 as the third ended on a high note for Prairie Grove.
Midway through the fourth, Pearson scored twice on long outlets in nine seconds. Prairie Grove kept the pedal to the metal. Another Cooper 3-point play followed by Johnson’s free throws when he got behind West Fork as the recipient of a long outlet pass staked Prairie Grove to its largest lead of 26 points, 74-48, with 4:04 remaining.
PRAIRIE GROVE 78, WEST F 56 ORK
Prairie Grove 19 21 22 16 — 78 West-Fork 13 12 14 17—56 Prairie Grove (10-9, 8-3): D.J. Pearson 9 2-3 23, Will Pridmore 5 1-3 12, John David Elder 5 2-2 12, Anthony Johnson 3 3-4 10, Demarkus Cooper 3 2-2 9, Nick Pohlman 2 1-1 5, James Millwood 1 3-4 5, Gabe LeDuc 1 0-0 2. Totals 29 14-19 78.
West Fork (6-12, 2-10): Garren Wynn 3 8-12 16, Justin Bivens 4 4-4 12, Brenon Burks 2 4-4 9, Zak Mckenzie 3 0-0 6, Mason Ramey 2 1-1 6, Jack Neyman 1 0-0 3, Eric Fowler 0 2-2 2, Eddy Smith 1 0-1 2, Xavier Hernandez 0 0-1 0. Totals 16 19-27 56. 3-Point goals — Prairie Grove 6 (Pearson 3, Johnson, Pridmore, Cooper). West Fork 5 (Wynn 2, Burks, Neyman, Ramey).