Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Pridmore, Valenzuela Named All-Conference
FARMINGTON – Two players from Farmington’s 2018-2019 boys basketball 4A-1 Conference championship team received postseason awards.
Will Pridmore and Danny Valenzuela earned All-Conference recognition for their senior season of boys basketball in which the Cardinals won 18 games against 11 losses with a 10-2 record in 4A-1 play. Pridmore was also voted All-State and played in the Arkansas High School Coaches Association All-Star game for the West.
Pridmore averaged 21.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 4.8 assists helping Farmington claim a No. 1 seed going into district play and qualify for the 4A North Regional tournament. Farmington coach Beau Thompson, who was named head coach for the West All-Stars, attributed much of Pridmore’s scoring to developing a strong finishing ability around the basket along with consistent free throw shooting when he drew fouls against defenders.
Valenzuela averaged around 8.5 points-per-game along with 2.5 steals. His tireless enthusiasm for chasing the ball defensively resulted in countless deflections and steals coupled with a tenacity for moving without the ball on offense led to open shot opportunities for the Cardinals.
“He was effective in the game in so many ways that statistics can’t define him,” said Thompson. “His energy affected the game.”
The individual skills of both players were on full display during Farmington’s 61-52 victory over Huntsville on Tuesday, Jan. 22, at Cardinal Arena when the teams came in tied for the top standing in the 4A-1.
Held to 4 points in the first half, Pridmore used passing to open up a lead finding Valenzuela for a spot-up trey giving Farmington its first lead of the second half, 25-24. The lead changed hands twice after that before Farmington ripped off a 15-9 run to finish the third quarter.
Trailing 29-28, Pridmore passed out of a double-team to Valenzuela for another 3-pointer, then added his own trifecta before driving and dishing to Valenzuela for one more trey.
Thompson praised the play of both players, saying Valenzuela was very efficient, didn’t miss many shots, and hit some real big shots in the game.
“He was probably offensively the difference especially until Pridmore kind of got it going late in the third, early in the fourth,” Thompson said.
The 5-foot-8 guard scored 18 points, 12 of which came on four 3-pointers with Pridmore drawing the defense by putting the ball on the floor and setting up three of Valenzuela’s open looks.
Thompson lauded Pridmore for doing a good job of ball distribution.
“He’s starting to get doubled a lot every game and he’s doing a good job of finding the open man,” Thompson said.
Pridmore finished with 18 points as Farmington emerged from the game 16-6 overall and 7-0 in conference while the Eagles dropped into second place at 14-7 and 6-1.