Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Lady Tigers Advance To Regionals
LINCOLN — When Prairie Grove and Huntsville last met the Lady Tigers won on a last-second shot, something that wasn’t necessary Saturday during the 4A-1 District consolation game at Lincoln.
The vast improvement of the Lady Tigers from the Nov. 14 season-opening, 39-37, win to Saturday’s 37-20 defensive domination was evident to Prairie Grove coach Kevin Froud.
“We’ve improved a lot, defensively we’ve gotten better and better,” Froud said. “We just have a little offensive lull once in a while. We’re giving the effort on defense and just not getting the shots to fall at times. I’m proud of our girls. If you told me at Christmastime that we’d win third place in our district and be going to Regionals I’d be happy.”
At Christmas Prairie Grove was 5-6 and nowhere near as effective defensively as the full-court press was Saturday against Huntsville. Froud subbed in five fresh players several times keeping the pressure on.
“We do that a lot, platoon them in,” Froud said. “I knew our bench was a little deeper than theirs so I went with the platoon subsitutions to keep our legs fresh to where they (Huntsville) get tired. They rely on their outside shots and we wanted to get their legs tired.”
Complete domination became the result. In spite of Prairie Grove’s own cold shooting in stretches, the defensive play kept Huntsville bottled up. No Lady Eagle reached double figures and the best quarter Huntsville had was in the fourth with seven points, not nearly enough to overcome a 31-13 deficit at the end of the third quarter.
Prairie Grove takes on 4A-2 runner-up, Ozark, on Thursday at 7 p.m. in the 4A North Regional at Berryville.
Prairie Grove 37, Huntsville 20
Huntsville 4 3 6 7 — 20 Prairie Grove 8 17 6 6 — 37 Huntsville (13-19): Makayla Watkins 3 1-2 8, Maci Campbell 1 2-2 5, Dezeray Suffridge 1 0-0 3, Kara Drewer 1 0-0 2, Kendra Poor 1 0-0 2. Totals 7 3-4 20. Prairie Grove (18-11): Emily Grant 5-15 1-2 13, Larisha Crawford 3-9 0-0 9, Lexie Madewell 2-3 0-0 5, Sarah James-Stone 1-5 2-4 4, Aniyah Gibbs 1-11 2-2 4, Audrey Doering 1-3 0-2 2, Madi Vinson 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 13-50 5-10 37.
3-Point Goals — Prairie Grove 6-18 (Crawford 3-8, Grant 2-6, Madewell
1-1, Gibbs 0-1, Vinson 0-2). Huntsville 3 (Campbell, Watkins, Sulffridge). Rebounds — Prairie Grove 31 (Wynos 11). Assists — Prairie Grove 7 (Gibbs 3). Steals
— Prairie Grove 4 (Stone 2, Wynos 2). Turnovers — Prairie Grove 11.
Prairie Grove vs. Berryville
Emily Grant made 3-of-4 free throws, then drilled a 3-pointer to pull Prairie Grove within seven points, yet Prairie Grove couldn’t overcome a bad second quarter.
Top seed Berryville (28-1) advanced into the District 4A-1 girls basketball championship and sent Prairie Grove into the consolation with a 48-36 win in Friday’s early semifinal.
Berryville used an 18-4 scoring dominance in the second quarter to break away from a tight game. They led just 6-4 at the end of one period of play, then expanded that to 24-8 at halftime. Junior Hannah Morrell just doesn’t have size, her athleticism was on display with 9 points in the second. She went up high to catch lob passes, then powered the ball in the basket twice on such plays. Another field goal was recorded on a quick drive from the free throw line.
Berryville threatened to blow the game open by opening the third quarter on a 7-1 run. Baylea Smith’s 3-pointer gave the Lady Bobcats a 31-9 lead. The Lady Tigers dug in their heels and forged an 11-4 run over a 3:26 span of the third.
Emily Grant and Jasmine Wynos combined to make six straight free throws for Prairie Grove, which ramped up the attack with full-court pressure. Larisa Crawford nailed a 3-pointer and got a layup. Berryville led 35-22 after the third and Prairie Grove would get even closer in the fourth.
Grant scored 12 points to lead Prairie Grove while Baylea Smith had a gamehigh 18 for Berryville.
BERRYVILLE 48, PRAIRIE GROVE 36
P. Grove 4 4 14 14— 36 Berryville 6 18 11 13— 48 Prairie Grove (2-5): Emily Grant 2-14 7-8 12, Sarah James-Stone 2-7 5-6 9, Jasmine Wynos 1-5 7-8 8, Larisha Crawford 2-4 0-0 5, Lexie Madewell 1-7 0-0 2, Aniyah Gibbs 0-5 0-0 0. Totals 8-42 19-22 36. Berryville (28-1): Baylea Smith 7 1-3 18, Hannah Morrell 5 1-1 11, Lexy Anderson 3 4-4 10, Kelcee Hopper 4 0-0 8, Aspen Smith 0 1-2 1. Totals 19 7-10 48.
3-Point Goals — Prairie Grove 1-14 (Crawford 1-3, Gibbs 0-1, Madewell 0-3, Grant 0-7). Berryville 3 (Baylea Smith 3). Rebounds — Prairie Grove 20 (Wynos 6). Assists — Prairie Grove 3 (Gibbs, Sugg, Wynos). Steals — Prairie Grove 10 (Stone 4). Turnovers — Prairie Grove 22.
Prairie Grove 40, Lincoln 21
Prairie Grove earned a spot in the Regional girls basketball tournament this week at Berryville by virtue of a 40-21 win over District 4A-1 tournament host Lincoln on Tuesday, Feb. 13. The loss ended Lincoln’s season.
The fortunes of the teams seemed polar opposites as the game played out.
The Lady Wolves struggled immensely to find the hoop during the first three quarters. Their inability to buy a bucket allowed Prairie Grove to get off to a 13-2 lead at the end of the first quarter, although the Lady Tigers didn’t shoot particularly well early.
The first period was nearly halfway over before either team made a shot from the field. Prairie Grove got free throws from freshman Jasmine Wynos, who went to the offensive boards. Larisha Crawford finally broke the ice by nailing a trifecta.
Lincoln answered quickly with Robin Kirk finishing a 2-on-1 fast-break at the 4:02 mark. The Lady Wolves had several blocked shots, but Kirk got into foul trouble and drew her fourth on an illegal screen with just inside five minutes to play in the half. She eventually fouled out on a similar play in the third quarter.
Audrey Doering had a shot blocked out-of-bounds, but came back with a layup for Prairie Grove when play resumed. Lincoln, on the other hand, missed a 2-on-1 layup and shot a number of airballs from behind the 3-point arc. After one such miss, Prairie Grove’s Larisha Crawford sank a trey after Doering got a second chance for the Lady Tigers with an offensive rebound.
Prairie Grove led 22-8 at the half.
Turnovers also plagued Lincoln.
PRAIRIE GROVE 40, LINCOLN 21
Lincoln 2 6 2 11 — 21 P. Grove 13 9 9 9 — 40 Lincoln (9-8): Jessica Goldman 3 0-0 7, Averi Massey 2 0-1 4, Tristan Cunningham 1 0-0 3, Madison Jones 1 1-2 3, Robin Kirk 0 2-2 2, Katie Lankford 1 0-0 2. Totals 8 3-5 21.
Prairie Grove (8-8): Larisha Crawford 4-5 0-0 11, Jordan Sugg 2-4 2-2 7, Jasmine Wynos 0-5 6-9 6, Emily Grant 2-10 1-2 5, Madi Vinson 1-2 0-0 3, Alyssa LeDuc 0-0 3-4 3, Sarah James Stone 0-2 2-4 2, Audrey Doering 1-2 0-0 2, Aniyah Gibbs 0-8 1-2 1, Lexie Madewell 0-2 0-0 0, Kaylee Elder 0-1 0-0 0, Mariah Halbert 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 10-42 15-23 40. 3-Point Goals — Prairie Grove 5-10 (Crawford 3-4, Vinson 1-1, Sugg 1-1, Elder 0-1, Gibbs 0-1, Grant 0-1, Madewell 0-1). Lincoln 2 (Cunningham, Goldman). Rebounds — Prairie Grove 22 (Wynos 8). Assists — Prairie Grove 7 (Madewell 3). Steals — Prairie Grove 10 (Grant 3). Blocks — Prairie Grove 2 (Grant, Stone). Turnovers — Prairie Grove 14.