Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Bearcat Of A Tourney For Lady Tigers
PRAIRIE GROVE COMPETES AT BOONEVILLE
WEST FORK — A new dynamic framed the rivalry between Prairie Grove girls basketball coach Kevin Froud and his hometown mentor, Greenland coach Alan Barton, in their first meeting this season
The local schools met on a neutral court at West Fork in the Duel of the Dome girls basketball tournament with Prairie Grove winning, 41-27, on Saturday, Nov. 16.
“Yeah it is different. He’s got a really young team. I got eight girls on our team, which as you know, is really down for us and the eight girls that we have play their hardest always,” Barton said. “We got to develop more skill. We got some help coming, but right now we’re going to focus on the eight girls that want to play basketball.”
Both teams struggled offensively during the first quarter with Prairie Grove taking a 6-3 lead. Greenland rallied with an 8-4 run to briefly capture an 11-10 lead but Barton noted the Lady Pirates were just 11-for-22 at the free throw line in the first half and squandered chances to increase their lead. Twice they missed the front end of a 1-and-1.
“We’ve got to figure it out. I mean we gave up a great opportunity the first half to probably go up by 10 or 15 missing all those free throws, but it’s girls that are not used to playing and it’s their turn,” Barton said.
Prairie Grove countered with a 9-2 run in the last two minutes to build a 19-13 lead at halftime. Olivia Kester, a 6-0 post, scored a pair of baskets while Logan Meadors hit a long jumper and Torie Price added a 3-pointer during the spree.
Prairie Grove worked its inside game with Kester notching two more buckets in the third. Zoe Hubbs also got in on the action as the Lady Tigers increased their lead to 34-19 after three quarters.
“We started listening a little better in the second half and making some shots and when she (Olivia) has got that we just want her to catch it, turn, use the glass and score. That’s what we talk about. We work on getting that. Once she does that she made some that gave us the advantage and gave us a little bit of a lead,” Froud said.
Abby Preston turned a steal into an assist leading to consecutive scores by Charity Stearman. Preston also hit a 15-footer and Price got two free throws
In the fourth quarter Kester and Hubbs, a 5-9 sophomore, set up in a double post. Partially due to consistently getting high-percentage shots in the paint, Prairie Grove shot 50 percent from the field against Greenland.
Froud sensed the Lady Tigers could match up pretty well guarding Greenland with the twin-tower lineup and was hoping that if one missed the other one would get the rebound on the other side and put it back in. Greenland was forced to rotate guards and forwards to help defend the post which freed up some perimeter shots for the Lady Tigers.
“It helped us a little bit and they had to collapse down. That’s some stuff we work on where we kick it out,” Froud said. “We’re learning as we go.”
The Lady Tigers played without Trinity Dobbs, who sat out for disciplinary reasons, junior center Jasmine Wynos recovering from a broken bone in her hand, and Mariah Halbert out for the season with a back injury. Wynos is expected to return in mid-December.
The Lady Pirates were held to 14 percent field goal shooting. Neither team lit it up from long-range. The Lady Tigers hit 2-of-7 on their 3-point attempts for 29 percent while Greenland was at 20 percent. Free throw shooting for both teams wasn’t pretty. Greenland made 15-of-26 for 58 percent while Prairie Grove shot 50 percent (9-of-18) at the foul line.