Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Good Thing Comes To An End
LADY TIGERS KNOCKED OUT IN FIRST ROUND
PRAIRIE GROVE — The Brookland Bearcats unleashed a savage trapping defense forcing multiple Prairie Grove turnovers early in the fourth quarter to oust the Lady Tigers, 59-52, from the State 4A tourney.
The overtime loss on March 7 marked a rare first-round exit for Prairie Grove, which has played for the state title three of the last five years. During that stretch the Lady Tigers have compiled an overall mark of 116-25 with four conference titles, three district titles and four Regional championships plus nine consecutive appearances in the state tournament.
Coach Kevin Froud has always set high standards for his team and the 2013-14 squad is not without notable accomplishments having won the District tournament with hard-fought wins over fellow state tournament teams, Ozark (46-43) and 4A-1 regular season champion, Farmington (47-42) in the District championship.
Froud said this year’s team has been the best squad he’s had at shooting free throws.
“The kids played hard and did a lot of things to win a lot of games. We shot about 80 percent from the free throw line, if you’re close in games that will make the difference to get a few extra points at the free throw line. You’ll win a lot games,” Froud said.
The Lady Tigers struggled during the postseason, yet found a way to defeat Waldron, 40-39, in the firstround at the 4A North Regional to earn a state berth before losing to conference foes, Ozark and Berryville, to place fourth.
At state, Prairie Grove handled Brookland’s fullcourt pressure early and established a 38-31 lead after three quarters with Macie Kultgen’s free-throws after Lacey Beeks tapped an offensive rebound and Callie Robinson came up with the ball in the lane and reset the offense by finding a guard.
Prairie Grove went scoreless for the first 4:28 of the fourth frame.
The Bearcats scored 11 straight points spurred by Rachel Grambling as Brookland went up, 42-38.
“We played good for all but about 1:30 in the game and that’s kind of what cost us the game,” Froud said. “They threw a press at us and we turned it over a little too much and they got some lay- ups and they started hitting some shots. We started missing some shots and they got momentum.”
The Lady Tigers fought to overcome the Brookland surge. Freshman Parker Lopez took an outlet from Beeks and went in for a lay-up and after a Brookland free throw, Abby Smith broke the press with a behindthe-back dribble and set up Taylor Hartin for two points pulling the Lady Tigers within, 43-42. Brookland led 48-43 on Bailey LaGreen’s free throws before Prairie Grove hit 4-of-6 foul shots to climb back within a point, at 48-47. Forced to foul, the Lady Tigers sent LaGreen to the line where she made 1-of-2 earning Brookland a 49-47 cushion.
Froud used a timeout and on the in-bounds play Brookland double-teamed Beeks forcing her to give up the ball. Mattie Hartin then used a quick dribble to get down the lane and lay in the tying field goal with four seconds left.
The contest went into overtime tied at 49-all but the Lady Tigers were outscored 10-3 and lost 59-52 finishing with a 21-9 record.
“We were fortunate to hit a lay-up to get it into overtime,” Froud said. “They hit some big shots in overtime and we didn’t.”
4A STATE GIRLS FIRST-ROUND MAR. 7 – BROOKLAND 59, PRAIRIE GROVE 52 OVERTIME
Brookland 14 10 7 18 10 — 59 Prairie Grove 17 13 8 11 3 — 52 Brookland (59) Rachel Gramling 6 0-0 13, Menley Long 3 3-4 11, Cali Milligan 4 2-4 11, Jordan Maynard 4 2-3 10, Bailey Lovrien 0 7-8 7, Alexa Thompson 2 1-2 5, R. Thompson 1 0-0 2. Totals 20 15-21 59. Prairie Grove (21-9) Lacey Beeks 5-13 3-3 16, T.Hartin 2-3 5-6 10, Kultgen 3-9 2-2 8, Lopez 2-8 3-6 7, Abby Smith 2-2 2-2 6, Mattie Hartin 2-8 0-0 5. Totals 16-37 15-19 52.
Three-point goals – Brookland 4 (Long 2, Gramling, Milligan). Prairie Grove 5-14 (Beeks 3-4, T.Hartin 1-2, M.Hartin 1-5, Lopez 0-1, Kultgen 0-2). Rebounds - Prairie Grove 24 (Kultgen 11). Assists – Prairie Grove 2 (Beeks, Smith). Steals – Prairie Grove 4 (Beeks, M.Hartin, Kultgen, Lopez). Turnovers – Prairie Grove 16.