Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Farmington Capitalizes On Tiger Scoring Drought
PRAIRIE GROVE — Farmington senior Will Pridmore got his outside game going in the gym where he played his sophomore and junior seasons leading the Cardinals with 24 points past Prairie Grove.
“He shot it really well especially in the first half. The difference in the first half was that we scored at the end of both quarters,” said Farmington coach Beau Thompson. “We did a good job of controlling the tempo the whole second half. We shortened our rotation a little bit, moved the ball a little better. Monster third quarter. They went awhile without scoring and we scored eight or 10 points early in the third quarter and you know we can play at our pace from that point on.”
The Tigers held Pridmore to six points during the teams’ first meeting won 39-22 by Farmington at Cardinal Arena on Dec. 14. This time, Pridmore, who transferred from Prairie Grove to Farmington in the spring, hit a pair of longrange shots in the last two minutes of the first quarter as the teams were tied, 10-10.
The Cardinals (17-6, 9-0) were able to squelch any momentum Prairie Grove (6-11, 3-5) could have built early through 3-point shooting. Prairie Grove senior Nick Pohlman threw down a left-handed dunk on a breakaway giving the Tigers an early 4-2 lead, but Danny Valenzuela hit a trey at the other end pushing Farmington ahead, 5-4.
“He’s not a volume shooter by any means, but when he does, he makes really timely shots for us,” Thompson said. “That was definitely a big shot just to quiet the crowd a little bit.”
Prairie Grove stayed with Farmington most of the first half, but endured a 10:56 scoring drought as the Cardinals won 44-28.
The Tigers went 13:21 without a field goal in between 3-pointers by Riley Rhodes, the first of which gave them a 15-13 lead at the 4:54 mark of the second quarter. Farmington tied the game on an Austin Shelley bucket. James Millwood made 1-of-2 free throws to put Prairie Grove back on top, 16-15, with just over three-and-a-half minutes to go in the second.
That would be the Tigers’ last lead.
Prairie Grove coach Steve Edmiston was satisfied with the Tigers’ defense, but lamented the scoring dryspell.
“If we can hold opponents to the mid to low forties, I feel like we should have an opportunity, but that’s where the offense has got to come to it. That’s just how it is. You’re only going to limit team so much, offensively,” Edmiston said. “I can’t say enough about our defensive work and what we do on the defensive end, but we’ve got to do a better job on the offensive end.”
Pridmore nailed two 3-pointers in the last 2:02 of the half, including a buzzerbeater when the rebound was tipped out to him after a Cardinal double team forced him to give up the ball. The basket gave Farmington a 23-15 halftime lead.
“Little bit of luck right there. He makes the right pass out. We miss the shot, tips out to him. He makes three at the end of both quarters. They didn’t call the first one a three. I believe it was. That was the difference in the first half,” Thompson said.
By the time Rhodes hit his second trey with 25.6 seconds left in the third, Prairie Grove trailed 35-19 and couldn’t get back in the game although they played the Cardinals even with both teams scoring nine points in the fourth quarter.
Edmiston felt poor decisions which led to turnovers led to the offensive lull.
“They hit shots, we didn’t. That’s how they were able to increase the lead. We kept coming down getting empty possessions. Against a team of that caliber, you can’t go four or five possessions without getting points and I’m sure on a lot of those we weren’t even getting shots. We were turning the ball over, not taking care of it,” Edmiston said. “There were opportunities there. We just didn’t take advantage of them. Defensively, I was proud of our effort. We played hard, but the name of the game is put it in the basket. We simply did not do that tonight.”
Millwood led the Tigers with 11 points.
“Coach Ed, they always play good this time of year. He goes to Berryville and wins by 20. They do what they do really well. They play really hard. We was lucky enough to make enough shots tonight to get ahead of them and we played our tempo,” Thompson said. “I’ve never been over here when it was easy regardless of records of either teams.”
With the victory Farmington maintained first place among 4A-1 boys teams.
FARMINGTON 44, PRAIRIE GROVE 28
Farmington 10 13 12 9 — 44 Prairie Grove 10 6 3 9 — 28 Farmington (17-6, 9-0): Will Pridmore 24, Austin Shelley 9, Danny Valenzuela 8, Tony Mayo 3. Prairie Grove (6-11, 3-5): James Millwood 11, Nick Pohlman 6, Riley Rhodes 6, Braden Risner 3, Cole Vertz 2.