Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Prairie Grove Girls Overwhelm Greenland
PRAIRIE GROVE — Prairie Grove defeated Greenland for the second time this season by a 60-35 score in nonconference girls basketball action on Monday, Nov. 22.
The matchup featured a friendly confrontation between two highly competitive coaches, Kevin Froud, of Prairie Grove, against Alan Barton, of Greenland, both of whom take the game seriously and each has won state championships at their respective schools.
Froud, a native of Greenland, has known Barton since his teenage years and won’t take a victory over Barton for granted despite the lop-sided score that saw Prairie Grove establish a running clock in the fourth quarter after leading 54-23 at the end of the third period.
“It kind of ebb and flows back and forth throughout the years. He wins some and I win some,” Froud said. “They played us a zone tonight. That was a positive out of it. It was good for us to see it.”
Senior forward-post player Zoe Hubbs turned in a dominant performance on the boards grabbing 7 rebounds with 3 offensive rebounds for the Lady Tigers.
“Zoe Hubbs did a good job. She was finishing. That’s what I need her and [co-post player] Olivia Kestner to do. When they play that way it makes us a better team especially against conference teams like Harrison. They’ve got a couple of big ones,” Froud said.
Prairie Grove capitalized upon its size advantage blended with outside shooting. Kestner scored on a lob to make it 10-6 before Greenland senior Heidi Rust hit a pair of free throws, her eighth points of the period that also included two 3-pointers.
The Lady Tigers tightened up their defense holding Greenland scoreless for the final four minutes of the first with Hubbs’ 3-point play on a putback stretching their lead out to 14-8 at the end of the first quarter.
Greenland didn’t score again until the 2:55 mark of the second. Meanwhile Prairie Grove went on a 13-0 run with senior Trinity Dobbs scoring six points and handing out an assist to Ella Faulk for a 27-8 lead.
Greenland finally got scoring from someone other than Rust when junior Sydney Barton, the coach’s daughter broke the run with free throws. Emma Vaughan got into the act for Greenland making a free throw and a 3-pointer. Dobbs set up Rayleigh Bartholomew who answered for Prairie Grove. The teams traded baskets as the half wore down and Prairie Grove took a 37-18 lead into halftime.
Greenland got into extreme foul trouble in the first 1:30 of the third period with Sedona Swinson and Vaughan each drawing their fourth personal foul when Hubbs twice crashed the offensive glass and sank 4-of-4 of foul shots. Rust also committed her fourth trying to get the ball back after Dobbs made a steal for Prairie Grove.
Barton let the trio play on and they rewarded their coach’s faith in them by playing disciplined and none of the three fouled out. They did have to be careful on defense and Prairie Grove took full advantage scoring the first 14 points of the period to open up a 51-18 lead. Faulk scored five points in the surge and fed Bartholomew on a give-and-go for an easy basket.
Lexi Henry’s three in the waning seconds of the third gave Prairie Grove a 54-23 lead and Froud played reserves in the fourth getting younger girls more experience. Sophomore Halsey Hunt drained a pair of 3-pointers in the fourth while Bethany Gonzales made six points in the period for Greenland.