Houston, We Have A Problem

MASSAGE HELPS PRAIRIE GROVE SOPHOMORE STAY IN GAME

PRAIRIE GROVE — Three times Trinity Dobbs had to have her legs and ankles worked on by Prairie Grove trainer Tracy Houston down the stretch during a 38-32 girls basketball win Friday.

“Houston, we have a problem,” became the rallying battle cry for Prairie Grove coach Kevin Froud and Tracy Houston provided the solution.

Froud called time-out with 1:45 left in the fourth quarter buying time while his best player laid on the floor with Houston massaging Dobbs and stretching out her legs and ankles.

“I got cramps in both of my calves so Tracy had to stretch me,” Dobbs said.

Dobbs never complained about pain and came back out on the floor when play resumed. She was fouled and calmly sank both ends of a 1-and-1 extending the Lady Tiger lead to 34-25.

Elkins raced downcourt but Makenna Hughes couldn’t get a shot to go down while driving from the corner. Dobbs cleared the rebound and was fouled. Again she knocked down both free throws in a bonus situation.

Tiara Jackson put in a bucket for Elkins and the Lady Elks had another chance but couldn’t score. Hobbs was clearly in pain favoring one leg while trying to dribble upcourt. Froud recognized that she needed to come out and used another time-out. This time Dobbs wasn’t able to immediately resume action and the Lady Tigers went without her for 7.1 seconds off the game clock.

That was long enough to lose possession on a traveling violation. Froud quickly subbed Dobbs back in and she toughed it out.

Bryn Shirley hit a 3-pointer and Elkins coach Monica Wells stopped play with a time-out. Twentyseven seconds remained, plenty of time for Elkins. Prairie Grove needed free throws and Dobbs delivered making her third straight conversion of a 1-and-1 to give Prairie Grove some breathing room with a 38-30 lead with the clock down to 19 seconds.

Wells acknowledged the disparity between Elkins’ 6-of-15 free shooting performance for the game and Dobbs’ clutch foul shooting which kept Prairie Grove in the lead.

“We missed nine free throws, they only missed two (in the last 10 minutes),” Wells said.

Froud doesn’t refrain from speaking about the potential he sees within Dobbs to become a girls basketball star — although his comments tend to be very matter-of-fact.

“She can be very a special player. She had 22 tonight,” Froud said. “She was 6-for-6 in the fourth quarter with free throws with a cramping leg so that’s just a young player making plays.”

Every time Dobbs went to the floor to get stretched out the Tiger mascot did his best to pep up school spirit distracting the crowd from the seriousness of the situation by his antics. At one point he hugged fiveyear-old Hadleigh Prince, bringing a great big smile to the child’s face.

If the Tiger mascot could have borrowed the microphone from public address announcer Keith Bostian for a scant few seconds, he might have, with all Christmas gusto, declared, “That’s a go, Houston, problem solved.”

Prairie Grove wins 38-32.

MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER A referee holds Prairie Grove girls basketball coach Kevin Froud in check during Friday’s game against Elkins. Froud was forced to use timeouts to get his star player, Trinity Dobbs, breaks to work out cramps during the fourth quarter. Dobbs gritted it out scoring 22 points to propel the Lady Tigers to a 38-32 win.

Hadleigh Prince, 5, of Prairie Grove, gets a hug from the school Tiger mascot during Friday’s basketball games at Tiger Arena.