Wolves Struggle Offensively

LINCOLN — Last season Lincoln overcame a 16-point halftime deficit at home and came back to beat Prairie Grove, but the Tigers made certain that wasn’t happening this time.

Prairie Grove went into a Jan. 5 game at Lincoln with a “lock-down defense” mentality and the Tigers executed the game plan well to the tune of a 50-24 win over the Wolves.

“They (Lincoln) have a couple of really good shooters, we wanted to take that away from them,” said Prairie Grove coach Steve Edmiston. “Troy Sugg, he can really shoot it if you leave him open. We kind of locked up defensively and got going early. That was a good defensive win for us. Any time you hold a team to 24 points, you’ve played well defensively.”

Ice cold shooting plagued the Wolves’ boys basketball team throughout the contest. Other than Brance Sugg, who finished as Lincoln’s leading scorer and tied for game honors with 15, the Wolves could not consistently find the hoop. Prairie Grove led 15-4 after one quarter and 37-21 at the end of the third quarter.

The Tigers spread the offense around between D.J. Pearson (15), Will Pridmore (13) and Anthony Johnson (10).

Elkins 54, Lincoln 34

Elkins handed Lincoln a 54-34 loss Jan. 9. The contest was tied 9-9 at the end of the first quarter before the Elks steadily pulled away over the final three quarters. Elkins’ pointguard Chad Graham led all scorers with 21 points while Brance Sugg scored 12 for Lincoln. Graham’s play led to a quartet of 3-point plays for the Elks.

“Chad was very aggressive driving to the basket,” said Elkins coach Jared Porter. “That allowed Ethan Hipps and Layne Evans to be able to knock down a lot of jump shots because of Chad’s penetration to the hole. Getting familiarity with Lincoln, which will be a conference rival (next year) and having an idea of what they’re trying to do both offensively and defensively I think is very beneficial to a young team.”

Elkins has started a junior and three sophomores in the lineup at times this season.