Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Tigers Go 2-1 At Booneville Tourney
PRAIRIE GROVE — The Prairie Grove boys basketball squad traveled to Booneville to tip off the season at the Bearcat Invitational winning two games and losing one to place second.
The Tigers beat Paris and Booneville to advance into the championship where they were upstaged by a 36-point outing from Waldron’s high scoring Payton Brown. The 6-feet-3 senior does that to a lot of teams. He lit up Subiaco Academy for 56 points while averaging 32 points-a-game last season.
Prairie Grove kept a lid on him for awhile. Brown didn’t produce a single point in the first quarter and had only 8 at halftime before exploding for 28 in the second half.
“Waldron, they’ve got probably the best player for sure in that conference (3A-1) that Lincoln’s in and we knew he was going to be a handful. We did a pretty good job the first half, the second half he kind of took over the game,” Steve Edmiston said.
Waldron 59, Prairie Grove 38
Gada Wagner opened the scoring with a 3-pointer for Waldron 1:39 into the contest. Waldron took an early 5-1 lead and Prairie Grove went into the paint trying to answer only to have Mason Ford block a shot with Waldron clearing the rebound. Brown took a pair of steals all the way and finished on the break to finally get going during the second quarter.
Waldron shot 57 percent from the field while the Tigers managed 29 percent. Waldron hit 3-pointers at a sizzling 43 percent rate compared to a lowly 16 percent for Prairie Grove. Waldron was also better at the foul line making 65 percent to 56 percent for Prairie Grove.
WALDRON 59, PRAIRIE GROVE 38
Waldron 6 15 19 19 — 59 Prairie Grove 8 8 11 11 — 38 Waldron (5-0): Payton Brown 13 6-6 36, Isaac Villarreal 2 0-0 5, Mason Ford 1 2-5 4, Gada Wagner 1 1-1 4, Jacob Avila 2 0-0 4, Jaden Hutchens 0 3-4 3, Ruben Valdez 1 0-0 2, Sam Slater 0 1-2 1. Totals 21 15-26 59. Prairie Grove (2-1): John Mayers 2 3-4 8, Noah Ceniceros 3 0-0 6,
Cole Vertz 2 0-1 5, Jake Webb 2 1-1 5, Carl Von Bergen 1 0-1 3, Alex Edmiston 1 1-2 3, Ethan Gross 1 0-1 2, Cade Mitchell 0 2-4 2, Aiden Jentzsch 1 0-0 2, Eli Fisk 0 2-2 2. Totals 13 9-18 38.
3-point Goals — Waldron 6 (Brown 4, Villarreal, Wagner). Prairie Grove — 3 (Meyers, Vertz, Von Bergen). Rebounds — Prairie Grove 29, Waldron 27. Assists — Prairie Grove 12, Waldron 7. Steals — Prairie Grove 3, Waldron 12. Blocks — Prairie Grove 2, Waldron 3.
Prairie Grove 58, Booneville 45
Booneville stayed within 38-36 through three quarters before the Tigers regained control in the fourth outscoring the tourney host, Bearcats, 20-9, during a second-round game. Prairie Grove coach Steve Edmiston thinks at times the Tigers were almost too unselfish.
“We overpass a little bit, but we do a great job of not being selfish and get it to the open guy,” Steve Edmiston said. “We just got to learn when that good shot comes to shoot it and not make another pass, but that’s something that comes with time and experience.”
Prairie Grove led throughout the first half, but couldn’t quite shake Booneville. London Lee’s trey pulled the Bearcats within a bucket before the Tigers answered to lead 14-9, after one quarter.
Prairie Grove led 33-23 at the half, but the Tigers were outscored 13-5 during the third. A big play occured in which Alex Edmiston got a bucket during a critical stretch that kept the Tigers ahead. Bearcat Jacob Herrera blocked a shot in the paint but while he was congratulating himself Alex Edmiston, son of Prairie Grove coach Steve Edmiston, retrieved the ball and put it in the basket.
As the period wore down Booneville caught fire. Blake Jones’ 3-pointer drew Booneville within 38-33 with 2:53 to go in the third. Moments later he canned another trey from the wing cutting Prairie Grove’s lead even more.
The fourth quarter belonged to Prairie Grove. The Tigers racked up 15 assists and held a 24-21 rebounding edge. Seven players scored topped by John Mayers with 18 and Carl Von Bergen with 17. The duo combined to make five 3-point shots.
PRAIRIE GROVE 58, BOONEVILLE 45
Prairie Grove 14 19 5 20 —58 Booneville 9 14 13 9 — 45 Booneville (1-2): Blake Jones 3-4 3-3 11, Austin Hill 4-11 1-1 10, Zack Costa 4-5 2-5 10, Jacob Herrera 2-11 3-3 7, London Lee 1-1 0-0 3, Jordan Sanchez 1-2 0-0 2, Andrew Mattson 1-4 0-2 2. Totals 16-38 9-14 38. Prairie Grove (2-0): John Mayers 6 4-9 18, Carl Von Bergen 7 0-0 17, Alex Edmiston 3 1-2 7, Cole Vertz 2 2-2 7, Noah Ceniceros 1 2-2 5, Blake Gardner 1 0-0 2, Cal Robinson 1 0-0 2. Totals 21 10-16 58.
3-point Goals — Prairie Grove — 6 (Von Bergen 3, Meyers 2, Vertz). Booneville — 4-18 (Jones 2-3, Lee 1-1, Hill 1-5, Mattson 0-2, Hererra 0-7).
Rebounds — Prairie Grove 24, Booneville 21 (Herrera 5). Assists — Prairie Grove 15, Booneville
10. Steals — Prairie Grove 11, Booneville 15. Blocks — Prairie Grove 2, Booneville 1 (Herrera).
Prairie Grove 44, Paris 35
Eight different Tigers scored in the first game of the boys basketball season with Prairie Grove defeating Paris, 44-35. The Eagles were ahead, 19-17, at the half before Prairie Grove outscored them 27-16 over the final two periods. Noah Ceniceros scored 14 and Carl Von Bergen had 13 points for Prairie Grove.
Coach Steve Edmiston plans to play a lot of different players this season as long as they show up and make contributions.
“I tell the guys all the time the depth will be something that they pretty much control. If I’ve got four guys that can roll in and give us what I think we need or six or eight or whatever, we’ll do it,” Edmiston said. “I think that helps us in the long run as far as playing that four-quarter game with intensity and effort. I think right now depth is a strength of ours. We just got to make sure we continue to bring that depth along. They’re mostly juniors, but I think if we can get those good minutes out of them it only makes us better down the road.”
Dylan Krigbaum pitched in 15 points for the Eagles, who made six 3-pointers, but only attempted a single free throw. Prairie Grove got to the foul line 20 times and made 14 which was the difference in the game.
PRAIRIE GROVE 44, PARIS 35
Paris 11 8 9 7 — 35 Prairie Grove 13 4 13 14 — 44 Paris (0-3): Dylan Krigbaum 7 0-0 15, Nick Bazyk 4 0-0 10, Dylan Odom 2 0-0 6, Travar Ambler 1 0-0 3, Luke Trusty 0 1-1 1. Totals 14 1-1 35. Prairie Grove (1-0): Noah Ceniceros 4 6-7 14, Carl Von Bergen 4 3-4 13, John Mayers 3 3-5 9, Alex Edmiston 1 2-2 4, Cole Vertz 1 0-1 2, Ethan Gross 1 0-1 2. Totals 14 14-20 44. 3-point Goals — Prairie Grove — 2 (Von Bergen 2). Paris — 6 (Bazyk 2, Odom 2, Krigbaum, Ambler).