Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Tigers Knock Out Pirates
PRAIRIE GROVE BOYS EXECUTE OFFENSIVELY IN 56-39 WIN
PRAIRIE GROVE — Prairie Grove rode the 1-2 punch of Eric Henderson with 20 points and Evan Foster with 19 to beat Greenland 56- 39 in nonconference boys basketball action on Monday, Nov. 22.
“We are young and we are going to have to learn by growing with experience, but it’s a good problem to have. I think we have some sophomores who can contribute right now and we’re looking forward to getting them as much experience as we can and get them in the flow,” said Prairie Grove coach Steve Edmiston.
He expects that process to take a little bit of time yet remains confident that the squad will get there.
“With Eric, being the scorer that he is, and just being a sophomore the ceiling’s pretty high and I think he’s got a lot to look forward to,” Steve Edmiston said. “We got a couple of other young guys I think will help us coming from football. It’s a good mixture with experience and youth. Hopefully, it’s going to be something that we can improve upon better as we go through the season.”
The Tigers erased an early 5- 4 deficit with a 10- 3 run to close out the first quarter. Henderson began the run by nailing a 3-pointer from the right corner. Austin Henry did likewise followed by baskets by Cole Cash and Cole Edmiston and the Tigers led 14-8 after the first quarter.
Cole Edmiston, sophomore, is the coach’s son. Steve Edmiston counts it as a privilege to get to coach him and recalls the same coaching his oldest son, Alex, who graduated in 2020.
“I need to probably keep that perspective, too, that I am lucky in that respect that I do get to coach both of them so I’ve got to kind of watch myself getting onto him like I did the older one and make the most of my experience with him, one where we both enjoy [ basketball] and like it. He, too, I think has a lot of upside and a lot of potential,” Steve Edmiston said.
Senior Cole Cash demonstrated his potential as well with a strong outing in the season-opener against Ozark.
“That’s the best he has played probably in his career. I thought he had a great game, 12 points, 12 rebounds, and did a lot of good things for us, shot it well. I think he’s going to have to build off those type of things and really try to create some confidence and understand and realize he can do it because he is solid and he can help us. He’s just got to convince himself that he can,” Steve Edmiston said.
In the second period Prairie Grove bumped its lead up to eight on Foster’s putback. Greenland then scored five straight points before Foster landed a jumphook to make it 20-15 with 2:19 left in the first half. The Tigers held a 25-19 lead at intermission and extended that to 16 points after three quarters by out-scoring the Pirates 17-7 in the third.
Greenland was within 35- 25 with two minutes remaining in the third on Kade Gobel’s free throws but the combination of Layton Hesgard playing guard and Foster in the paint created a 7-1 Tiger run. Hesgard spotted Foster alone underneath the bucket and fed him for an easy deuce in the halfcourt offense on the heels of another Hesgard assist and hoop- and- harm by Foster. The duo worked it one more time to end the third with Prairie Grove on top, 42-26.
“Evan has 19, 12 of those in the second half and we just basically said, ‘ Get down there and go to work’ and we got it to him where he could finish around the rim. I thought he did a great job and really that was the difference in the third quarter. That’s how we kind of got away from them was getting those easy buckets inside and he had good assists and good finishes by him,” Steve Edmiston said.
The pair hooked up again 27 seconds into the fourth with Foster scoring on the low block. Hesgard came away with a steal at the 6:10 mark then orchestrated a beautiful give-and-go taking a pass back from Foster as he cut the lane to score. The bucket provided a 46-28 margin for the Tigers although Hesgard cramped up on the play and had to check out.
“It was a [beauty]. A little Laker cut, a little enter it and then Layton cut off it and [ Foster] gave it back. Yeah, that was a good look. It’s something we try to get. That’s something that helps. Again, it’s good to see execution on the offense for sure,” Steve Edmiston said.
Henderson went high off the glass then added an uncontested layup pushing Prairie Grove out to its biggest lead at 53-29 with 4: 11 to go and the Tigers went on cruise control posting a 56-39 victory on their home-court.