Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Lady Tigers Deal Shiloh Girls Out
PRAIRIE GROVE — Sophomore Abby Preston got her game on stinging Shiloh Christian with outside jumpers and an all-around game sparking Prairie Grove to a 53-46 win to open district tournament play.
Preston recorded 12 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 steals keeping Shiloh Christian (8-20) without a victory against a 4A-1 school this past season. The Lady Saints went 0-11 in conference play, then lost the tournament game.
Meanwhile Prairie Grove (10-16) advanced to Tuesday’s game against Pea Ridge in the District 4A-1 girls basketball tournament it hosted.
The Monday, Feb. 17, win didn’t come easy, but it might not have happened without Preston’s productivity off the bench, plus some outstanding plays by Torie Price handling the ball against pressure and 6-0 sophomore center Olivia Kestner, who had 11 rebounds.
Shooting Touch
“Abby Preston she had her best offensive game this year shooting the ball and scoring, and it was big. We were needing it,” said Prairie Grove coach Kevin Froud.
Froud touted the form Preston displayed while launching the shots.
“It had good backspin on it. When she gathers herself and doesn’t rush it and just shoots it, it’s got some good spin on it and it’s got some good rotation and it’s a nice shot. She just gets, sometimes, in too big of a habit of trying to rush it,” Froud said. “But, that was good. I was happy for her to see her do that.”
Nip And Tuck
Early in the fourth quarter, Shiloh earned consecutive scores on Acie Thurlby’s 3-pointer followed by Rylie Russ’ steal and layup. As play developed on the ensuing in-bounds, Froud wisely refrained from calling timeout because the Lady Tigers beat Shiloh’s full-court press with Kestner taking a long outlet and laying it in.
Froud then took time-out but the Lady Tigers still had trouble with the press. Lauren Wyand, a 5-11 sophomore, drove for a bucket in the paint, then Russ hit another trey and suddenly Shiloh led 39-38.
Prairie Grove got a break when Simpson traveled after making a steal. Trinity Dobbs made a pair of clutch free throws in a 1-and-1 situation restoring Prairie Grove to the lead 46 seconds after they lost it.
Price Breaks Press
Shiloh Christian made one last charge, scoring four straight points capped by Russ’ final trey that pushed the Lady Saints ahead, 44-43, Prairie Grove only needed 13 seconds to flip that with Price dribbling through a full-court press and passing to Kestner for a layup at the other end.
“She did a good job of breaking it one time and throwing it to Olivia and Olivia finishing,” Froud said. “The next time they kind of stayed back and she made a shot from inside the lane so it’s young players are finally hopefully starting to listen.”
Rachel Cox, the tallest player on the floor at 6-2, gave Shiloh its last lead of 46-45 with a power move, but in the 10 seconds it took to get down-court Price banked a shot in on the run and for all their hard work to eke out a lead, Shiloh found themselves trailing again, 47-46, at the 1:57 mark.
Brilliant Defense
Kestner played brilliant defense in holding Shiloh scoreless for the last two minutes. She blocked a shot out-of-bounds with the Lady Tigers leading 50-46 on the strength of Dobbs’ foul shooting. Shiloh in-bounded underneath its own goal twice and couldn’t score.
Twice in the last 30 seconds Kestner made the Lady Saints think she was going to challenge a shot, but backed off avoiding a foul and rebounding an airball. Those possessions enabled Preston and Dobbs to seal the game at the free throw line as the Lady Tigers claimed a 53-46 victory.
“There in about the last two minutes of the ball game when they took the lead we were able to get some stops. They fouled us and we make some free throws and get the lead back,” Froud said. “She (Kestner) did a good job of finally getting her hands up and making them have to shoot a contested shot over her.”
First Quarter Frenzy
There were three lead changes and three ties in the first quarter, the last at 11-11 thanks to Preston’s 18-footer.
Shiloh’s Katelyn Simpson, who finished with 4 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals, made a free throw to give the Lady Saints a 12-11 edge at the end of the first quarter.
Preston promptly erased that deficit with a high-arcing beautiful trajectory 3-ball typical of her shooting. After Cox’s putback tied the score again, Preston swished another trifecta from the right wing. Later she knocked a 15-foot pull-up jumper pushing Prairie Grove out to a 20-16 lead which keyed a 9-2 Lady Tiger run over the last 5:19 of the first half.
Playing with confidence as sky high as her rainbow shots, Preston added a third trey also from the right wing and the Lady Tigers took a 26-18 lead into the locker room at intermission.
Dobbs And Wynos
Dobbs finished with 20 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals. Jasmine Wynos added 10 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. She made two critical layups early.
Prairie Grove maintained at least a seven-point lead for the majority of the third quarter until Russ drained a three, cutting the margin to 34-29 with 1:42 remaining in the third. The Lady Saints didn’t score again in the quarter and Wynos’ free throws restored the lead to seven, at 36-29, when the quarter was over.
“I thought Jasmine did very well tonight attacking the basket and being assertive,” Froud said. “And then, Trinity, our leading scorer all year, she’s just growing into her role. When she’s scoring usually it’s giving us chances to win in ball-games cause Jasmine’s getting hers and Olivia can get some of hers and they (the defense) can’t put so much pressure on Trinity.”
“It’s a team win. In the second half we did better of covering their ball screens. It’s this time of year, you got to make plays throughout. Every possession’s a battle whether it’s the first quarter or the fourth quarter.”