FARMINGTON -- On Friday Farmington Lady Cardinals (7-1) and Prairie Grove Lady Tigers (2-7) met on the hardwood for the second time this season for a non-conference slugfest. On December 2 the Cardinals travelled to Prairie Grove and clobbered the Tigers by 28 points. A mere 10 days later, the Cardinals, playing on the floor of Myrl Massie Gymnasium in Farmington for the final time, earned the sweep of their U.S. 62 rival by dispatching Prairie Grove by a score of 53-42.
"I thought in the second half that our length started to bother them [Prairie Grove] and I thought our kids did a good job of getting out in transition," said Cardinal coach Brad Johnson. "Now I want to give Prairie Grove a lot of credit, because I thought they played a whale of a ballgame. They competed really hard, I thought they executed well and they pushed us to our limits. Fortunately our girls responded well and we were able to get the win."
Prairie Grove's Taylor Hartin, who led all scorers with 14 points, buried a 3-pointer at the 3:12 mark of the opening period, then followed that with a baseline floater which put the Tigers ahead 6-5. Farmington's Tayton Hopkins countered with a trifecta that allowed the Cardinals to carry an 8-6 lead into the second frame.
Maria McPherson kept Farmington's momentum going with a hoop and harm 3-point play early in the stanza, while Trish O'Connell had a pair of successful drives to the bucket which combined with an inside basket from Tori Hamley and an offensive put back by Kristi DuChanois allowed Farmington to increase their advantage to 10 points, 24-14. A pair of freebies from the charity stripe by Prairie Grove's Megan Reynolds with 4 ticks on the clock helped the Tigers trail by just 7 points, 24-17 heading into the locker room at halftime.
The Cardinals caught fire after intermission going on a 12-0 run to start the third period. The run was highlighted by triples from DuChanois and Tahlon Hopkins as well as a layup from O'Connell. Prairie Grove's Parker Lopez finally stopped the bleeding with a pair of made free throws at the 3:11 mark of the stanza. A pair of baskets late in the period by Sara Stone and Reynolds helped the Tigers keep the score at a manageable 38-23 heading into the final frame.
A 3-pointer by Camree Bartholomew followed by a Taylor Hartin layup early in the fourth period helped close the gap to 38-28. And, with 1:38 left in the game Bartholomew stroked another triple to make it a single-digit lead 49-40. However, Tahlon Hopkins scored on a strong move to the hoop and DuChanois followed that with a fast-break layup which put the final nail in the Tigers' coffin and allowed the Cardinals to claim the 53-42 win.
"I thought our girls battled and we know that it is going to be a learning process," said Tiger coach Kevin Froud. "I think we're getting better and I saw a lot of bright spots tonight, we just need to work on having more consistency."
On offense for Farmington, Hamley and Tahlon Hopkins led the team in scoring with 11 points each, DuChanois added 9 points, O'Connell chipped in 8 points, McPherson and Tayton Hopkins each tallied 6 points and Taylor Smith rounded out the scoring with 2 points. For Prairie Grove, Lopez followed Taylor Hartin in the scorer's ledger with 9 points, Bartholomew finished with 8 points, Reynolds added 4 points, Stone, Mattie Hartin and Ashley Cox all had 2 points each, while Taylor Doss finished with 1 point.
Sports on 12/17/2014