Lady Tigers Take Down Cardinals For 4A-1 Title

Prairie Grove Takes Conference Crown 3 Years Straight

PRAIRIE GROVE — The Prairie Grove Lady Tigers earned another championship banner to add to their ever increasing collection, claiming the 4A-1 conference crown for the third consecutive season after beating the rival Farmington Cardinals 55-50 on Friday at Prairie Grove.

“They (Farmington) are a great team and coach (Brad) Johnson does a good job with them. Fortunately, we were able to come up with some big shots when we needed them to win the game,” Tiger coach Kevin Froud said.

Farmington ( 20-5, 12-2) came in hoping to claim a piece of the crown with a win, but their efforts were hampered by sending Prairie Grove (23-1, 14-0) to the charity- stripe 34 times in the contest. The Tigers capitalized on the freebies to the tune of 16 points in the fourth period alone, with three of those made free throws coming after the Cardinals closed the gap to 52-50 with 23 seconds to play.

“We did some things with fouling and putting them on the line and they (Prairie Grove) do a good job of getting there. They got there 34 times and they were legitimate plays, we just didn’t do a good job of moving our feet,” Cardinal coach Brad Johnson said.

Farmington’s Haley Maxwell and Rene Scheyder both pulled the trigger on 3-pointers in the opening period, giving the Cardinals an early 6-3 advantage. Prairie Grove countered with a pair of triples from Lacey Beeks and a 3-ball by Haylee Fitts at the buzzer that helped the Tigers claim the lead, at 14-9.

Prairie Grove’s lead swelled to 11 points, at 25-14, with 2:29 to play in the second stanza, however, backto-back baskets by Breanna Jones