Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Farmington Battles Prairie Grove
FARMINGTON —The Farmington Cardinals (8-8, 5-1) and the Prairie Grove Tigers waged another one of their traditional heavyweight slugfests on Friday at Farmington’s Myrl Massie Gymnasium.
Each squad threw haymaker after haymaker, however it was the punching prowess and deft freethrow shooting touch of a freshman point-guard that helped the Cardinals claim a 57-51 victory after the final bell sounded.
Despite still being in the ninth grade, Farmington’s Matt Thomas was able to block out all the hoopla which surrounds a typical Farmington versus Prairie Grove matchup to lead all scorers with 23 points, 9 of those coming from the charity- stripe in the fourth and deciding period.
“Lots of kids would crack under that type of pressure, but I believe in him ( Thomas) and the rest of our team believes in him so we are going to continue to give him the ball late in the game,” said Cardinals’ coach Beau Thompson. “Both him and the rest of our team grows up a little more each game.”
A pair of 3- pointers from Prairie Grove’s Ty Tice, who led the Tigers in scoring with 17 points, and a triple from Leighton Smith, helped Prairie Grove forge an early 9- 5 lead.
However, a kiss off the glass from Mac Spears and four consecutive points by Thomas which included a fade- away jumper at the buzzer allowed the Cardinals to carry an 11-9 advantage into the second period.
Prairie Grove continued to see success from beyond the arc with Tice knocking down another pair of triples while Derek Arguello and Tanner Pursell each pitched in a 3- ball in the frame. Farmington countered with a couple of jumpers from Michael Ingram and some pin- point shooting from behind the deep stripe themselves.
Jeremy Mueller tickled the net with a bomb at the 5: 50 mark, while Skyler Barnes doubled that number with two trifectas, the second coming with 10 seconds left in the frame which gave the Cardinals a 28-26 lead going into intermission.
After halftime Thomas converted a jumper and a pair of drives to the hoop and Barnes aided the effort with 5 points, however the Tigers received 5 points from Dylan Soehner as well as 2 points apiece from five other players which allowed Prairie Grove to carry a 41-39 lead heading into the final frame.
A quick 3- pointer from Tice to begin the period was answered with a pair of free-throws from Spears and a 3- ball by Barnes which knotted the score at 44-44.
Soehner muscled in an offensive put-back, but was countered by four consecutive points from Spears which put the Cardinals on top, 48- 46. The score was tied 48- 48, but in the last 4:18 Thomas made five trips to the charity-stripe, converting 9 of his 10 attempts which propelled the Cardinals to the 57-51 victory.
“I’m proud of our effort,” said Tigers’ coach Steve Edmiston. “I love the rivalry we have with Farmington. I hate that they are leaving the conference, but we will continue to play them and we get at least one more game with them at our place for our senior night. We just have to find a way to make some plays and get some W’s.”
Offensively for Farmington, Barnes followed Thomas with 16 points, Spears scored 9; Michael Ingram, 4; Mueller, 3; and Michael Ryan, 2. For Prairie Grove, Soehner followed Tice with 8 points; Smith tallied 7; Pursell, 6; Derek Arguello, 5; Jacob Storlie, 4; and Parker Galligan, 4.