Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Lady Tigers Get 4A-1 Tuneup
SILOAM SPRINGS — Teams — smart teams, anyway — benefit more from a loss than a win.
Prairie Grove has a smart girls basketball team.
The Lady Tigers (9-4) gained experience defending a taller, dynamic scorer during a 57-44 loss against Holland Hall, Okla., to open the Siloam Springs Holiday Classic on Dec. 29. They rebounded with wins on consecutive days against Inola, Okla. (50-34) and Gentry (37-23) to finish fifth in the tournament.
Sure, the back-to-back wins built confidence heading into Tuesday’s 4A-1 opener at Shiloh Christian, but Prairie Grove improved more during its lone loss than in its two victories.
The reason was Gabby Gregory, Holland Hall’s 5-foot-10 freshman. Gregory posted up defenders on the block, beat them off the dribble from the wing and created open looks for herself and teammates while running the point.
“She’s one of the best players we’ve played in the last three or four years,” said Prairie Grove coach Kevin Froud. “She didn’t get rattled, she could handle the ball and she could shoot it.”
The Lady Tigers limited Gregory to 11 points in the first, third and fourth quarters combined. However, Gregory exploded for 20 of her game-high 31 points during a lopsided second quarter to send Prairie Grove into the loser’s bracket.
Gregory’s all-around game is certain to catch college coaches’ attention because it’s tough to defend against a player who’s as equally effective inside, and out.
“If we know what sets they’re running, we usually can figure out a way to stop them,” Froud said. “But some- times you just can’t because the opponent is more talented than you.”
After taking an early 9-5 lead, Prairie Grove was outscored 28-15 (and 20-15 by Gregory alone) during the second quarter to find itself trailing 33-24 at halftime.
A 9-4 run by Prairie Grove to open the second half trimmed the deficit to two buckets (37-33), but Holland Hall answered with a 20-3 run to pull away from the Lady Tigers.
“We’ll have lulls where we may go four or five minutes and not score anything,” Froud said. “We’ve had quarters like that and I don’t know if there’s a way to stop that, but we need to get more consistent all the way through and not have those lulls like that.
“We’ve got enough girls who can shoot the ball that usually, if one’s not hitting, then someone else will. That can help keep us out of those lulls, but we’ve just not been peaking where everyone is on.”
As much as defending against Gregory will improve Prairie Grove’s chances of containing the next dynamic scorer it faces, returning to the court less than 24 hours after a loss also helped the team’s overall growth.
“We bounced back from (the loss), so that was good,” Froud said. “We have to shoot the ball good. We’re usually in the right spots, but at times we have trouble generating offense. We didn’t shoot it as good as we’re capable of in our first game here.”
Because of the tournament-opening loss, the best outcome for the Lady Tigers was to finish fifth by winning its final two games.
Of course, Froud found teaching moments in all three games, so the tournament served its purpose of preparing the team for 4A-1 play.
“Now that we get into conference, we’re going to play some bigger teams,” Froud said. “It’s going to be a matchup problem for us. That’s when we’ll have to do some run-and-jump type stuff — things to speed the game up a little, so we play to our strength.”
Perimeter shooting and overall team quickness are Prairie Grove’s strengths, so speeding up tempo with high-pressure defense and a “dribble-drive offense” should help hide the team’s lack of size. At 5-foot-9, sophomore Sarah James Stone is the Lady Tigers’ tallest player. Stone and 5-7 senior Ashley Cox “do a great job of post defense and rebounding,” Froud said.
Prairie Grove is the favorite to repeat as 4A-1 champs because it returns every player off of last season’s team, which finished 12-2 in conference play. Its losses were against Berryville and Huntsville, two teams that will challenge the Lady Tigers the most because of their size advantage in the paint.
Huntsville returns 6- 1 senior Cheyenne Walkingstick and always is competitive under the guidance of long-time coach Charles Berry. Berryville has four players listed at 5-10 or taller, including senior Ally Teague ( 6- 0), freshmen Kelcie Hopper (6-0) and Hannah Morrell ( 6-1). Froud said Gentry is another dangerous opponent on the conference slate.
All three 4A-1 foes have taller post players who also can score from the perimeter — like Holland Hall’s Gregory.
“(Our conference) is kind of like the SEC,” Froud said. “It’s just going to be typical of our conference with a lot of tough teams, so every night you’re going to have to come and play.”