Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Pottsville Cashes Chips On Charging Call
PRAIRIE GROVE — With 42.2 seconds left in overtime a charging call manifested against Prairie Grove senior Emily Grant driving to the basket on her homecourt with the Lady Tigers down one.
That was how momentum was turned away from Prairie Grove, suffering its first loss of the girls basketball season to Pottsville, 45-42, in overtime Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018.
Fans of both teams were stunned.
Realizing they had just been given the break they needed to win the game, Pottsville fans were delighted.
Prairie Grove fans found themselves trying hard to swallow the lump of coal that had just been deposited into their throat.
Prairie Grove coach Kevin Froud wasn’t playing the blame game although he didn’t agree with the charging call at home. Prairie Grove got no free throws in overtime while Pottsville made 4-of-6 in the bonus period.
“You just got to be assertive and go fast, not worry about if they’re holding you or whatever,” Froud said. “You just run as hard as you can. If they are holding you the officials will see that. The effort was great. We played hard. There were times we could have rolled over and we fought back every time. We were just one shot or one free throw or something away from winning that game.”
The situation looked like a classic case of who-dun-it?
Prairie Grove’s Jordan Sugg used a head fake to get past a guard and drive into the paint drawing the fourth foul on Pottsville starting center 5-feet-11 Shannon Lasey with 49 seconds to go in the third period. Sugg made a pair of free throws to tie the game at 25-all.
Somehow Lasey played the entire fourth quarter and overtime without picking up another foul although she was initially charged with her fifth contesting a shot by Prairie Grove sophomore Jasmine Wynos, who took a steal the length of the court. The buzzer sounded indicating Lasey would have to go to the bench with 3:04 remaining in the fourth. At that juncture the official went over to the scorer’s table and changed the call. Instead the foul was awarded to Abby James, her third; allowing Lasey to stay in the game.
Wynos made both free throws to tie the game at 32-32. The Lady Tigers moved in front 35-32 but poor foul shooting allowed a 5-1 mini run for Pottsville to take the lead on a freak play. The ball was kicked but play continued. Finally a loose ball took a Pottsville bounce into the hands of Abbie Cain wide open at the 3-point line. The 5-feet-3 junior drilled the shot pushing the Lady Apaches ahead, 37-36.
Prairie Grove tied the game with a free throw and the contest went into a four minute overtime deadlocked at 37-37.
“For us to be successful, we’ve got to take advantage of those opportunities and hit those free throws,” Froud said. “In our three games, in the fourth quarter in those three wins we were shooting like 72 percent in the fourth quarter. For tonight I think we shot 48 percent for the total game (10-of-21). In the fourth quarter we had an opportunity and we were 3-of-9 so that’s 33 percent in the fourth quarter. You’re not going to win a lot of game when you do that.”
In overtime Grant was whistled for three fouls in less than four seconds, including the charging call.
Pottsville sank 4-of-6 free throws in the last 38.6 seconds to cash in its chips and ice the game.
“We’ve shot well this year with our free throws,” said Pottsville coach Drew Siebenmorgen. “We went 18 for 20 one game and 18 for 23 in another game. We did a good job of holding our composure, and we knew the people we needed to get to the free-throw line.”
Wynos’ putback at the buzzer was too little too late and the Lady Apaches captured a 45-42 overtime win.
Grant scored 15 and Larisha Crawford added 11 for the Lady Tigers.
Cain hit four 3-pointers and scored 17 points while James had 15 mostly on drives to the basket to lead the Lady Apaches.
“Pottsville’s a good team, they’ve got a lot of tradition,” Froud said. “We’ve just got to make plays and opportunities when we get it. That point guard, No. 23 (Abby James), she’s a real good player and could get there (driving to the basket),” Froud said. “We had talked about it and went over it. That’s what Coach Dugan and I were talking about some of the mental aspect of the game. It’s not we did it for 10 minutes yesterday, that’s the first time we’ve ever done it; it’s a daily thing that we do is defensive-type stuff and when we don’t go out there and execute that stuff that’s when it’s kind of frustrating as a coach.”
POTTSVILLE 45, PRAIRIE GROVE 42
OVERTIME Pottsville 7 11 7 12 8 — 45 Prairie Grove 6 7 13 11 5 — 42 Pottsville (3-2): Abbie Cain 5 3-4 17, Abby James 6 3-6 15, Julia Reynolds 1 1-2 4, Sophia Hampton 1 0-0 3, Grace Braton 1 0-0 2, Shannon Lasey 1 0-0 2, Emma Tedder 1 0-0 2. Totals
Prairie Grove (3-1): Emily Grant 5-20 2-5 15, Larisha Crawford 4-8 1-2 11, Jasmine Wynos 2-10 5-10 9, Lexie Madewell 2-12 0-2 5, Jordan Sugg 0-4 2-2 2, Kaylee Elder 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 13-57 10-21 42.
3-point Goals — Pottsville 6 (Cain 4, Reynolds, Hampton). Prairie Grove 6-26 (Grant 3-12, Crawford 2-4, Madewell 1-7, Sugg 0-1, Elder 0-2). Rebounds — Prairie Grove 41 (Wynos 17). Assists — Prairie Grove 9 (Grant 3, Madewell 3). Steals — Prairie Grove 5 (Grant 3). Turnovers — Prairie Grove 15. Fouls — Pottsville 20. Prairie Grove 15. Fouled out — none.