Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Tigers Boys Notch First Win Of The Season Against Paris
Doughty Scores 14
WEST FORK — The Prairie Grove Tiger boys (1-4) placed their first check mark in the win column when they earned a 54-48 victory over the Paris Eagles on Saturday.
In their second contest of the West Fork Classic, the Tigers countered a mistake- plagued third quarter which saw them turn the ball over 6 times, leading to 9 Eagle points, with a solid fourth quarter effort where they took better care of the ball and outscored Paris 16-7, helping them secure the 6 point win.
“I told the boys I was proud of their effort tonight,” said Tigers’ coach Steve Edmiston. “We had an opportunity there in the third quarter to kind of give up on it, and when you see the way we’ve kind of been going and you hit that wall, then, as a team you have a decision to make and fortunately tonight we stepped up to the challenge and got away with the win.”
Ty Tice, who led all scorers with 19 points, had 2 steals and 8 points in the early going of the opening period, helping Prairie Grove build a 10- 3 lead. Paris closed the gap to 10- 8, then a Cameron Doughty trifecta pushed the advantage to 13-8 with 2:30 left in the stanza. The Eagles closed out the frame with a 5-0 run, knotting the score at 13-13.
The Tigers trailed 18- 15 in the second period until a Derek Arguello triple kick started a 90 run which included another basket by Arguello and a bucket each from Landon Allen and J.D. Speed. Paris scored the final 4 points of the period, which cut Prairie Grove’s lead to 24-22 at the break.
Sloppy ball security marred the Tigers’ effort in the third frame, with Prairie Grove handing the Eagles 9 points off turnovers. Eight points by Doughty in the frame, helped the Tigers trail by only 3 points, at 41-38, heading into the final stanza.
The Tigers opened the fourth period with a Speed steal and pass ahead to Cooper Winters, which cut the lead to 41-40. Later in the frame, Tice converted a pair of lay-ups which put Prairie Grove up 46-44 with 4:15 left in the contest.
The score was tied at 46-46 with 3:04 left, when Doughty spotted up behind the arc for a 3-ball, which gave the Tigers the lead for good. Tice helped ice the game from the charity stripe, making 5 of 8 attempts down the stretch.
“That three by Cameron (Doughty) was big,’ Edmiston said. “We were tied at 46 and he steps in and hits the three and from there we were able to hold on.”
Doughty followed Tice in the scoring ledger with 14 points. Winters tallied 6; Arguello, 5; Allen, 4; Speed, 4; and Tanner Pursell, 2. Dalton Nehus and Kyrean Hurley were the top 2 scorers for the Eagles with 18 and 10 points respectively.