Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Missed Layups Costs PG Lady Tigers
PRAIRIE GROVE — Prairie Grove’ postseason run to the Class 4A State semifinals in girls basketball and Trinity Dobbs’ rise to All-Star status seemed a million light years away during a mediocre regular season.
Gentry (21-2, 7-2) sealed a 41-36 road win at Prairie Grove at the foul line while the Lady Tigers (11-8, 3-7) couldn’t buy a bucket around the goal on Tuesday, Feb. 1.
The Lady Pioneers got clutch free-throw shooting down the stretch, making 11-of-12 at the stripe in the fourth quarter after going 2-for-5 in the third and struggling from the field. Gentry went 5: 18 without a field goal before Kaitlyn Caswell scored in the lane, extending Gentry’s slim margin to 30-27 with 3:52 showing in the fourth.
“Making free throws and missing free throws can kind of be contagious. We had a girl step up there and make several. I think we got on a roll there and got our confidence back,” said Gentry coach Toby Tevenbaugh.
Prairie Grove’s Trinity Dobbs, who went over 1,000 points for her career in the game, sank free throws to bring the Lady Tigers back within a point at 30-29.
Four Gentry players combined to ice the game on free throws led by junior Alyssa McCarty, who scored 15 points and sank 4- of- 4 free throws to go with a key 3-pointer that gave the Lady Pioneers a 33-29 lead with 3:01 left.
On the opposite bench Prairie Grove coach Kevin Froud, who resigned after the season, lamented a problem he’d been trying to correct all season long. The Lady Tigers missed a bunch of easy shots including four on their next possession.
“We were 7-of-22 on layups inside the lane. That hurts you,” Froud said.
Dobbs dove on the floor, gaining control of a loose ball and Froud took timeout. She aggressively went and got her own rebound on the ensuing inbounds play and made 2-of-2 free throws. Dobbs eventually buried a 3-pointer that narrowed Gentry’s lead to 39-36 with 13.2 seconds remaining but Gentry made 8- of- 8 free throws in the final 1:43 to maintain its lead.
“I don’t know that we ever have pretty games with Prairie Grove. They’re real physical and they kind of ugly it up and they did an excellent job tonight. We just had to make a few plays when we had to,” Toby Tevenbaugh said.
The win helped Gentry avoid losing 3- out- of- 4, a scenario Toby Tevenbaugh wouldn’t take lightly. The Lady Pioneers began the season 19-0 then lost to No. 1 ranked Farmington and a rivalry contest to Gravette before winning a make-up game against Huntsville on Jan. 29.
“It’s possible in this league, it’s so good. Coach Froud told me they’re probably going to be the No. 5 seed on our side and they could be at No. 2 easily so it’s just a tough league,” Toby Tevenbaugh said. “We just have kind of found a way to win close games. We’ve won four or five games by five points or less and winning is another one of those things that is kind of contagious. These girls hate to lose, they’re super competitive and right now we’ve won almost all of those 50-50 games that could have went one way or the other.”
His daughter, sophomore Emma Tevenbaugh was held to a single basket.
“She didn’t have her best game tonight, but I love having her out there. She’s really smart, she knows how I think. We communicate real well and we have a very, good coach-daughter relationship. We don’t talk about basketball at home much at all and we leave that on the court,” Toby Tevenbaugh said.