Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Towering Lakeside Squad Defeats Prairie Grove
LINCOLN — Springdale Lakeside capitalized on their superior height to defeat Prairie Grove, 41- 21, in junior high boys action on Dec. 4.
Lakeside was led by 6- foot- 3 eighth- grader Zach Peck with 17 points, who towered over the Junior Tigers and just about everybody else he faced in the Bi-County tournament.
Anthony Johnson scored on a double- pump move to tie the game at 2-2 and Taylor Moore sank a pair of foul shots to pull Prairie Grove within, 6- 4, at the 2:55 mark of the first quarter but the Junior Tigers couldn’t keep pace. Lakeside closed out the quarter on an 8-0 run to go up 14-4.
“We was worried about their athleticism,” said Prairie Grove coach Ulysses Ruley. “They have some pretty good athletes. We’ve been having trouble scoring and that didn’t help any. We got them in foul trouble but we couldn’t find a way to capitalize on it.”
Justin Smith, a 6- foot freshman, scored eight points for Lakeside and made two free throws after Moore’s free throw narrowed the gap to 18-7. Lakeside scored the final five points of the period beginning with Smith’s foul shots to build the lead to 23-7 at halftime.
“They really beat us on the boards on second chance opportunities. That’s something we’ve got to work on. We’ve just got to play smart,” Ruley said, calling the Junior Tigers “a work in progress.”
Prairie Grove produced more points in the second half, getting six in the third and eight in the fourth quarter but were too far behind and lost, 41-21.
Demarcus Cooper led Prairie Grove with seven points with Taylor Moore chipping in five points and Isaac Disney scored three. A trio of players finished with two points apiece, Anthony Johnson, Reed Orr and Cameron Simmons.