Lady Tigers Battling Injuries

PRAIRIE GROVE -- The season gets underway this week and already Prairie Grove's varsity girls basketball team is dealing with a lot of injuries.

Chief among the setbacks are a broken hand suffered by junior center Jasmine Wynos, who in 23 games last season averaged 6.4 points, and 6.2 rebounds per game. She also served as a ball-handler in breaking the press. But there are injuries to two other key players.

"We had a young lady break her hand in our Black and Gold game, Jasmine Wynos, a returning starter; and then Trinity Dobbs, a sophomore, turned her ankle in practice; and Mariah Halbert, another returning player from last year, she's had back problems, said Prairie Grove coach Kevin Froud, adding, "We'll find out more in a couple of weeks."

The team has no seniors. Froud expects a couple of juniors and about six sophomores to fill out the rotation.

"We'll be very young and inexperienced at the high school leve pretty much," Froud said. "But the girls play hard. We got some good size. We got some good athletic ability and I think as the year progresses, we'll get better."

For many of the players this will be their first taste of varsity driving them to excel and show what they can do on the basketball court.

"They want to win and they want to do things the right way and I appreciate that," Froud said. "They've had a good offseason. We've done some good things and hopefully got a little stronger and got a little faster. We'll start finding out here in a couple of weeks."

Froud seeks leadership to emerge on the court from juniors Gracie Foster, 5-6 post; and Logan Meadors, 5-5 forward.

"They're all good kids and I'm expecting these early games to kind of see what their role can be and how they can help us throughout the year," Froud said.

Dobbs, who is working through injury, moved up to varsity last season at the end of the year and helped by becoming the leading scorer more than once.

"She has the ability to be a very special player," Froud said.

Olivia Kestner, 6-0 post, also moved up to varsity towards the end of last season.

"She's a 6-feet post girl that has gotten better and I think she'll be accustomed well to the senior high game because of the physicality of it," Froud said.

Sophomore Zoe Hubbs, 5-9 post, is another girl who has come on and whom Froud expects to help in the paint.

Charity Stearman, 5-4 guard; and Torie Price, 5-3 guard, help at the guard spots while Abby Preston, 5-6 guard, and Arianna Harrel, 5-5 forward, add depth and may contribute at either foward or guard.

"With those I think we're going to be doing pretty good," Froud said.

Junior Eleanor Giardino, 5-3 guard, is among the upper classmen on the roster. Two newcomers recently moving into the district could also help.

Prairie Grove begins the season Wednesday against Lavaca in the Duel at the Dome tournament at West Fork. Tipoff is at 5:30 p.m.

Sports on 11/13/2019