PRAIRIE GROVE -- Dr. Suess could not have scripted Prairie Grove's come-from-behind, 45-41, victory over West Fork in boys basketball action Dec. 5 any better.
Fresh off the football gridiron, Anthony Johnson fearlessly knocked down a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left to lift Prairie Grove (2-5) to a win and stop a three-game skid. The clutch field goal amounted to Johnson's only bucket of the game and had Prairie Grove basketball fans singing, "Here comes Santa Claus right down Santa Claus lane with Johnson spotting up on the wing," as junior point-guard Will Pridmore drove into the paint with the Tigers out of time-outs and down, 43-42.
With two defenders all over him, Pridmore found the open man and Johnson delivered with a big-time shot. West Fork had one more opportunity but they were also out of time-outs and missed a potential game-tying shot.
"Will drove and penetrated and drew all the defense to him. They were focused on him, of course," Johnson said. "That left me open. I just drilled it. I really didn't think too much about it. My first instinct was to hoist it up there."
Prairie Grove coach Steve Edmiston delighted in the outcome even if that wasn't how he would have drawn up the winning play.
"Honestly, that was a huge shot," Edmiston said. "Will attacked the basket and drew the defense. I give him credit for giving it up. Anthony stepped into it in rhythm. That was a huge shot for him, especially as long as he has been in the gym shooting (since playing his last football playoff game Nov. 24). The 3-pointer is not his forte, but he shot it in rhythm. He stepped up to it. It was huge."
Edmiston took satisfaction in the Tigers' willingness to battle to the end when circumstances went against them late in the contest. After trailing, 19-13, at halftime, West Fork put 18 points on the board in the third and seized a 40-35 lead when Edmiston was hit with a technical arguing why traveling wasn't called when West Fork's Mason Ramey rolled over onto his side on the floor while in possession of the basketball. Brenon Burks, who led West Fork with 19 points, sank 4 of 4 free throws and West Fork in-bounded in the frontcourt with 2:18 on the clock.
Johnson deflected the ball into the backcourt and was pushed out-of-bounds by Burks trying to retrieve the loose ball. The effort forced West Fork to in-bound at the far end and Johnson ripped the ball out of their hands. He drove and drew a foul which led to Nick Pohlman's jumper breaking a 4:28 Prairie Grove scoring drought and 6-0 West Fork run. Edmiston burned his last time-out imploring his defense to stick with their assignments in a full-court man-to-man. The Tigers did forcing a 5-second violation and giving themselves a chance trailing 40-37 with 2:02 on the clock.
Justin Bivens stole the in-bounds pass, but was whistled for a double dribble. That was the break Prairie Grove urgently needed and Pohlman capitalized by draining his third trifecta of the contest to knot the score, at 40-40. Zac Pope made 1-of-2 free throws to put West Fork back in front, 41-40, but Pohlman established position in front of the rim where John David Elder found him with a lob on a high-low play for a 42-41 Prairie Grove lead. West Fork went back ahead on Burks' free throws and used its last time-out to set up their defense with 31.4 seconds to play only to have Johnson nail the game-winner.
"After I got that 'T,' which was a mistake on my part, I dug our hole even deeper. With two minutes to go we were down by five," Edmiston said. "I always preach to the boys not to get a technical foul. I didn't get it on purpose, but it was stupid. Then we shot that three and got right back in it."
Pohlman scored 7 points in a 1:22 span late in the fourth. He had a game-high 21 points on 9-of-9 shooting with a trio of 3-pointers.
"He just got hot, offensively he got us right back in the game for sure," Edmiston said. "I'm proud of our kids. We had a rough week last week. They had an opportunity to say, 'well, we'll just come back tomorrow,' but they didn't do that. They found a way to get it done. I'm not exactly sure how they did it, but they got it done."
Prairie Grove 45, West Fork 43
West Fork^9^4^18^12--^43
Prairie Grove^11^8^14^12^--^45
West Fork (6-0): Brenon Burks 3 11-12 19, Mason Ramey 4 0-0 11, Justin Bivens 4 0-0 8, Zac Pope 0 3-4 3, Jack Neyman 1 0-0 2. Totals 12 14-16 43.
Prairie Grove (2-5): Nick Pohlman 9 0-1 21, Will Pridmore 2 2-5 7, Demarkus Cooper 2 0-0 5, J.D. Elder 2 1-1 5, Anthony Johnson 1 0-0 3, DJ Pearson 1 0-0 2, Braden Risner 1 0-0 2. Totals 18 3-7 45.
3-Point Goals -- West Fork 5 (Ramey 3, Burks 2). Prairie Grove 6 (Pohlman 3, Pridmore, Cooper, Johnson), Elkins 3.
Sports on 12/13/2017