PRAIRIE GROVE -- All Prairie Grove needed to do was get the ball in-bounds, leading rival Lincoln, 32-30, with 1.8 seconds left, yet the unthinkable nearly happened in a Jan. 11 game.
In-bounding at the far end after Lady Wolf senior Kendra Cummings' clutch 3-pointer and a time-out by Lincoln coach Brian Davenport, the Lady Tigers tried to break two different players down-court across the time-line. Lincoln was wise to the strategy and prevented a baseball pass. That left only two Lady Tigers trying to get open against three defenders as Lincoln did not guard the in-bounder.
Prairie Grove 32, Lincoln 30
Lincoln^10^6^7^7^—^30
Prairie Grove^8^9^1^14^—32
Lincoln (3-12, 1-6): Kendra Cummings 7 0-0 15, Hollie Webb 2 0-1 6, Jessica Goldman 1 3-5 5, Allison Cunningham 2 3-3 7, Natalie Howard 0 1-3 1. Totals 11 4-9 30.
Prairie Grove (6-8, 5-3): Parker Lopez 5 7-9 18, Emily Grant 3 1-6 9, Audrey Doering 0 3-4 3, Camree Bartholomew 0 2-4 2, Lexi Madewell 0-0 0-0 0, Larisha Crawford 0-0 0-0 0, Jordan Sugg 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 8 13-23 32.
3-Point Goals Goals — Lincoln 3 (Webb 2, Cummings), Prairie Grove 3 (Grant 2, Lopez 1).
Prairie Grove avoided a five-second violation with junior Audrey Doering catching the ball in traffic in front of Lincoln's goal on the right side of the basket. For a split second, Doering appeared confused, about to lay the ball in the wrong goal which would have tied the game for Lincoln. At that moment, she lost her footing with the Lady Wolves reaching in desperately trying to tie the ball up. The horn went off as she fell to the floor ending the drama with Prairie Grove winning, 32-30.
Prairie Grove coach Kevin Froud may not have admitted one of his players looked like she may have been on the verge of making a crucial mistake in the heat of battle, but he did draw a big sigh of relief when the buzzer sounded.
"It's a win, we figured out a way how to do it," Froud said. "Kendra Cummings is a good player for Lincoln. She's physical, she hit that three there but we made enough plays to win."
The important thing is they didn't figure out how to lose.
The last 22 seconds probably seemed like an eternity to Froud, whose Lady Tigers survived a one-point third quarter and a 13 of 23 performance at the free throw line. The Lady Tigers trailed, 23-18, after three quarters, then seized a 31-27 lead with a 13-2 run capped by Camree Bartholomew's free throw with 22 seconds left.
Things got hairy after that.
Lincoln finally broke the Lady Tiger run with Cummings, who led Lincoln with 15 points, banking in a shot while driving the lane. Davenport called time-out stopping the clock with 6.8 seconds showing. Now shooting the double-bonus, Doering missed her first, then had to regain her composure with Lincoln taking time-out. She made the second to give Prairie Grove a five-point cushion of 32-27 with 5.2 seconds still on the clock.
Cummings pushed the ball quickly up-court doing a tip-toe dance along the sideline against pressure. She momentarily lost the ball, then set herself and snapped a 3-pointer, closing the gap to 32-30. Davenport was on top of the official and got the clock stopped with 1.8 seconds left, setting the stage for what almost became a crazy finish.
In a twist of irony, Lincoln's aggressiveness may have worked against them on the final play. Rewind the game tape, had the Lady Wolves been able to pause for a fraction of a second, they might have tricked Doering into scoring two points for them and sending the game into overtime.
"I felt we played really well the whole game," Davenport said. "I felt we played really good defense. Our 3-2 zone gave them trouble. I was thinking of pulling out of it, but it was working. So, if it wasn't broke I wasn't going to try to fix it. Free throws win or lose ball games and tonight they lost us the ball game."
Froud singled out Doering as an unsung heroine.
"Audrey Doering played a good game for us," Froud said. "In the fourth quarter she had some big free throws, some big rebounds and assists."
A crucial play by Doering came midway through the fourth after Lincoln turned the ball over with a high dribble resulting in a traveling violation against pressure in the front-court. Doering made a spectacular over-the-shoulder pass to Prairie Grove senior Parker Lopez for a layup slicing Lincoln's lead to 25-24.
Lopez led all scorers with 18, producing 8 points in crunch time. On a night where Prairie Grove struggled at the free throw line, Lopez was reliable, making 4 of 4 in the fourth quarter and 7 of 9 overall. Lopez made the play which restored Prairie Grove to a lead. She stole the ball and drove hard to the basket, drawing a foul and making both to push the Lady Tigers ahead, 26-25, at the 2:22 mark of the fourth, their first lead since holding a 17-16 halftime edge.
Lincoln's poor free throw shooting hurt them late in the game. The Lady Wolves had three different players miss the front end of a 1-and-1 opportunity in the fourth and were just 4 of 9 at the foul line for the game. After Lincoln missed a free throw, Doering was fouled. She stepped up to shoot a 1-and-1, getting a favorable bounce on the first attempt, then swishing the second. Lincoln again missed a free throw and Prairie Grove extended their lead to 30-25 on Lopez' second 2 for 2 trip to the line in the fourth.
A third Lincoln free throw went awry with 30 seconds remaining, then Bartholomew sank 1 of 2 for Prairie Grove creating an atmosphere for a wild finish to a game originally scheduled for Jan. 6, but put off nearly a week due to snowfall in the region.
"We have got to hit our free throws down the stretch," Davenport said. "We're trying to plug some holes, correct deficiencies in our late-game execution. Seems like we fix one and another pops up, but we will get them all corrected."
Sports on 01/18/2017