SPRINGDALE -- Without any seniors on their squad, the Prairie Grove Lady Tigers were supposed to be too young and a year away from being a serious contender in the 4A-1 conference.
On Saturday Prairie Grove proved their doubters wrong when they staved off Huntsville's senior-dominated Eagles, 42-39, to claim the tourney title as well as earn the No. 1 seed for the upcoming regional tournament.
"This is all the girls, it's all their hard work," said Tiger coach Kevin Froud. "They played extremely hard and did the things we asked them to do to win."
The Eagles built an early 7-2 lead but after much vocal prodding by Froud to attack and be aggressive, his charges awoke from their sleepwalk and began to swing momentum. Sophomore Parker Lopez, who along with Mattie Hartin, shared Prairie Grove's top scoring honors with 13 points, waged war with the offensive basket, attacking at every opportunity. Lopez's coast-to-coast lay-up at the buzzer concluded a 9-2 run with Prairie Grove ahead, 11-9.
"Since we don't have any seniors I feel that it is my job to help in that area and since today was a big game I knew I needed to step-up and help the team win," Lopez said.
Sarah James kicked off the second frame with a baseline jumper and Mattie Hartin canned a pair of triples coming off pretty feeds from both Lopez and Camree Bartholomew. Mattie's eight points in the period allowed the Tigers to swell their lead to 22-11. Then the Eagles began to peck away at that lead, shrinking the deficit to 25-17 by the halftime bell.
Despite 4 points from Lopez and a drive to the bucket by Bartholomew in the third stanza, the Eagles where able to whittle the deficit down to 31-30. With momentum having shifted slightly in Huntsville's favor, the Tigers needed a basket in a bad way to regain their confidence. That basket came with 6:00 left in the game when Mattie Hartin assaulted the hoop with a running one-hander.
"Since they were getting close I knew I had to help lead my team and do whatever I could to help us win," Mattie Hartin said. "But it really came down to who could make the most plays and who could make the most stops and tonight that was us."
The Tigers held a precarious 37-34 lead and proceeded to go into the four corners clock-killing strategy.
In the waning minutes an over-anxious Eagle defense left Ashley Cox open for an easy basket which made the lead 39-34 with 1:10 left in the contest. A pair of Taylor Hartin freebies stretched Prairie Grove's advantage to 41-34 with 39 seconds to play.
Huntsville reduced the lead to 42-39 after Shelbi McCartney, the game's leading scorer with 15 points, converted a basket with four seconds left on the clock.
A missed 1-and-1 opportunity didn't leave the Eagles enough time to get off a good shot. Their final attempt following the missed free-throw fell woefully short, giving the Tigers the 42-39 win.
Taylor Hartin contributed 6 points; Cox, 4; Bartholomew, 4; and James, 2.
Sports on 02/25/2015