Pottsville Apaches Unravel Cardinals 56-36

FARMINGTON BOYS SUFFER FIRST ROUND KNOCKOUT

MORRILTON — Farmington’s boys basketball team suffered a firstround knockout getting beat 56-36 at the hands of Pottsville’s Apaches last Wednesday during opening day of the 4A North Regional.

The loss capped a disappointing postseason in which the Cardinals (18-11) lost three straight games after an 18-8 showing in the regular season in which Farmington went 10-2 in league play and claimed the No. 1 seed from the 4A-1 West Division at the district tournament held the previous week at Harrison.

Harrison, which beat Farmington in the last game of the regular season (41-30) to start a 4-game Cardinal losing streak, also was beaten out (58-48) by Ozark, No. 4 seed from the 4A-4, in the opening round of the 4A North Regional. That sent two 4A-4 teams to the Regional semifinals Friday and punched their tickets to the State 4A tournament this week at Magnolia.

Against Pottsville (24-4), Farmington scored first on Tony Mayo’s basket, but the Apaches ripped off the next 12 points getting two buckets from Wesley Heikes and Kade Mainhart’s consecutive 3-pointers. Heikes capped the spurt before Jayden Whitmore broke the run for the Cardinals. Pottsville’s Logan Porter and Farmington’s Austin Shelley traded 2-point scores. Carter Horton’s old-fashioned 3-point play put the Apaches ahead, 17-6 after the first quarter.

Heikes and Blake Andrews extended the Apache string of points to seven and placed Farmington at a 21-6 disadvantage on the scoreboard. The Cardinals trailed 27-10 at halftime and made an effort to improve their offensive productivity in the third quarter. Farmington outscored Pottsville 14-11 in the

period, but still faced a 38-24 deficit going into the fourth quarter.

Pottsville tacked on 18 points to 12 for the Cardinals in the fourth quarter to post a 20-point victory, 56-36, and oust Farmington from the tournament.

Heikes led all scorers with 18 combining with Horton (14) and Mainhart (10) to generate 42 of the Apaches’ 56 points.

Senior Will Pridmore ended his career with a 15-point effort to lead Farmington.

POTTSVILLE 56, FARMINGTON 36

Farmington 6 4 14 12 — 36 Pottsville 17 10 11 18 — 56