Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Tigers Split Basketball Season Opener
PRAIRIE GROVE TAKES ON TOP-NOTCH GIRLS BASKETBALL OPPONENTS
PRAIRIE GROVE — Prairie Grove Tigers’ senior girls and senior boys basketball squads laced up their high-top sneakers in their season opening contest against the Charleston Tigers held Thursday in Prairie Grove. The Prairie Grove ladies opened things up with a 72-36 shellacking of the Charleston ladies, however in the evenings finale the Prairie Grove Boys fell to Charleston 62-48.
Senior Girls — Prairie Grove 72, Charleston 36
Sophomore Camree Bartholomew came off the Prairie Grove bench and scored 25 points which helped the ladies shake off a slow first quarter start and allowed them to bury Charleston by a 36-point margin.
Prairie Grove held a slim 12-9 lead after the first period, but four consecutive turnovers by Charleston which the Grovers turned into 8 points and 11 points in the frame by Bartholomew helped Prairie Grove build a 35-19 advantage at intermission.
Bartholomew, who stroked five 3-pointers in the game, converted two of those trifectas in the third stanza and had 9 points in the period, while teammate Taylor Hartin pitched in 7 points in the same frame fueling Prairie Grove to a 58-27 advantage. Megan Reynolds collected 4 points in the final period as Prairie Grove coasted to their 72-36 victory.
” We had some first game jitters at the beginning,” said Prairie Grove coach Kevin Froud. “We finally got into a rhythm and it worked out good for us in the end.”
On offense, Taylor Hartin finished behind Bartholomew in the scoring column with 18 points and was joined by her twin sister Mattie Hartin in double figures with 10 points. Taylor Doss notched 5 points, Reynolds finished with 4 points, Hannah Keelin recorded 3 points, Ashley Cox, Sara Stone and Sydney Williams all finished with 2 points and Parker Lopez rounded out the scoring with 1 point.
Senior Boys — Charleston 62, Prairie Grove 48
Playing with a distinct size disadvantage and with a depleted roster because the football team is still in the state playoffs, the Prairie Grove boys were unable to turn back the Charleston felines, eventually falling to the visitors 62-48.
The Grovers had a difficult time stopping Charleston’s Matthew Ward, who finished the contest with a game high 37 points. Ward dropped 10 points on Prairie Grove in the first stanza. He was countered by 6 points from D.J. Strong and 5 points from Tanner Pursell, which helped Prairie Grove only trail by a score of 18-13 after the opening period.
Charleston built a double digit lead in the second period, but were reeled in by Nick Ellis, who queued up a pair of triples which closed the gap to 27-19. A Parker Galligan pull-up jumper with 1:22 to play in the second stanza sent the teams into halftime with a score of 31-25 in favor of Charleston.
Gavin Heltmes scored 6 points for Prairie Grove in the third frame, however Charleston increased their advantage to 46-37. Charleston’s Ward scored 11 of his teams points in the fourth period, helping the visitors close out the contest with the 62-48 victory.
Prairie Grove’s offense was led by Pursell who finished with 16 points, followed by Ellis with 11 points and Heltmes with 9 points.