PRAIRIE GROVE -- Twenty-four hours beyond enduring their lowest offensive output of the season, the Prairie Grove boys regained their shooting touch by beating Haas Hall, 73-49, on Thursday.
The Tigers sustained a 53-28 road loss at Pea Ridge in a rescheduled game the night before. On Thursday they found themselves in a first quarter shootout with Haas Hall. All five Mastiff starters scored in the first 3:15. Mark Moghadam and Warner Fields sank 3-pointers and Moghadam dished out two assists penetrating and finding freshman Parker Owen, then pushing the ball up the floor and feeding Jackson Rogers. Both layups were good as was another by Rhett Owen. Moghadam's second trey opened up an 8-point Mastiff lead, which they matched 44 seconds later on a lob to Fields after Tiger free throws.
"We're really working on improving our shot selection," said Haas Hall coach Zach Fletcher. "We have a lot of good starts. We're working on keeping that going throughout the game."
The good news for Tiger fans was Prairie Grove was stroking 3-balls. Will Pridmore had two and D.J. Pearson added another in the first quarter. Prairie Grove used an 8-2 run in a 1:08 span to trim a 17-9 deficit down to 19-17.
"We kind of had to shake off last night," said Prairie Grove coach Steve Edmiston. "Haas Hall came out shooting well offensively. They kind of hit us in the mouth and scored 24 points in the first quarter. In the second, we had a much better defensive quarter. We gave up seven points. As poorly as we played offensively last night, I was glad to see us keep shooting. When you have a game like that, you have to continue to take shots and work for the best shot you can get."
Haas Hall led 24-19 after one quarter, but Prairie Grove flip-flopped the game over the middle two quarters. The Tigers outscored the Mastiffs 23-7 in the second period to open up a 42-31 halftime lead, which they increased to 55-38 at the end of the third quarter. Pridmore scored 30 points for the Tigers with Pearson adding 16. Owen led Haas Hall with 18 while Moghadam had 14.
"We had two guys who fouled out in the third quarter. That certainly hurt us," Fletcher said. "Prairie Grove is a very-well coached team. They have very good athletes, very tough kids. It was a good basketball game."
Prairie Grove 73, Haas Hall 49
Prairie Grove^19^23^13^18--73
Haas Hall^24^7^6^12--49
Haas Hall: Rhett Owen 7 4-4 18, Mark Moghadam 3 6-8 14, Warner Fields 2 0-0 5, Jackson Rogers 2 0-1 4, Parker Owen 2 0-0 4, Thomas Leonard 1 0-0 3, Collin McCabe 0 1-2 1. Totals 17 11-15 49.
Prairie Grove: Will Pridmore 10 7-8 30, D.J. Pearson 6 2-3 16, Nick Pohlman 2 4-6 8, James Millwood 2 2-3 6, Demarkus Cooper 1 3-6 5, Alex Edmiston 1 2-3 4, John David Elder 0 3-4 3, Anthony Johnson 0 1-2 1. Totals 22 24-35 73.
3-Point Goals -- Prairie Grove 5 (Pridmore 3, Pearson 2). Haas Hall 4 (Moghadam 2, Fields, Leonard).
Sports on 02/14/2018