Tigers Wilt Under Fourth Quarter Heat

POTTSVILLE RIDES PRESS TO 51-35 WIN OVER PRAIRIE GROVE

PRAIRIE GROVE — Trailing Prairie Grove, 29-28, entering the fourth quarter Pottsville turned up the heat applying full-court pressure and went on to a 51-35 win Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018.

The Apaches created turnovers on the Tigers’ first two possessions of the period which they converted into Kade Mainhart’s 3-pointer, Logan Porter’s drive and putback of his own miss as well as an old-fashioned 3-point play from Carter Horton. The 8 unanswered points in the first 1:53 of the fourth allowed Pottsville to surge ahead, 36-29.

“We didn’t handle that change of pace very well and it cost us,” said Prairie Grove coach Steve Edmiston. “If we’d been a little bit more calm, got the ball back in the half-court, I think we could have been OK. We just made some mistakes. The problem was we made those mistakes consecutively and that allowed them to kind of run out on us a little bit.”

Pottsville outscored Prairie Grove 25-6 in the fourth quarter to pull away as Porter and Horton each scored 15 points apiece to lead the Apaches.

In a way the fourth quarter press was a testament to Prairie Grove’s quality of shot selection in the third when the Tigers boasted a nearly 2-to-1 advantage in scoring ratio (11-6). The Tigers quickly erased a 22-18 halftime deficit getting a pair of John Mayers’ free throws and Riley Rhodes’ 3-pointer to briefly take the lead before it reverted to Pottsville on two buckets in the paint.

Nick Pohlman elevated on the baseline to score tying the contest at 26-26, the second tie of the period. Rhodes hit his second trey of the quarter on an assist from Alex Edmiston and the Tigers led by three. Wesley Heikes’ jump-hook pulled Pottsville within a point, at 29-28, at the close of the third.

“For three quarters I thought we played really, really well; made good decisions, hit some key shots, big shots,” Edmiston said. “Seems like the fourth quarter right now, we got to learn how to work through that, we got to learn how to play a complete game.”

Senior James Millwood led Prairie Grove with 13 points. Rhodes was also in double figures with 11.

POTTSIVILLE 51, PRAIRIE GROVE 35

Pottsville 13 9 4 25 — 51 Prairie Grove 4 14 11 6 — 35 Pottsville (4-1): Logan Porter 15, Carter Horton 15, Kade Mainhart 12, Wesley Heikes 9.

Prairie Grove (1-3): James Millwood 13, Riley Rhodes 11, John Mayers 4, Alex Edmiston 3, Nick Pohlman 2, Braden Risner 2.

MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER Prairie Grove senior Riley Rhodes tries to work out of a half-court trap employed by Pottsville. Rhodes scored 11 points, but the Tigers lost to the Apaches, 51-35, at home on Nov. 27.