Questionable Basketball Equity

Three weeks off didn't bode well for Prairie Grove, which played its last game Tuesday, Feb. 2 at Gentry then had its final two regular season games canceled.

Pea Ridge came to town for a Tuesday, Feb. 9 home contest, but left without playing the boys basketball game because of weather conditions in Benton County. Then the 4A-1 canceled all regular season finales scheduled for Friday, Feb. 12 including another home date for Prairie Grove hosting Gravette over fears of severe weather in the immediate forecast -- leaving the Tigers with a long stretch without competition.

League games set for Friday, Feb. 12 could have been played a day earlier on Thursday, Feb. 11 since the 4A-1 wanted to start its District tournament on Friday, Feb. 12, but they weren't. By the time the Tigers took the court against Shiloh Christian on Monday, Feb. 22 they were out of sync and lost, 43-41, in the quarterfinals ending their season.

Tigers Short-Changed

Once postseason involved another conference, the 4A-4 likely realized Monday's play-in games might serve as a springboard for 4A-1 teams able to win and advance to Regionals because their first-round opponents from the 4A-4 Conference would have been idle since Feb. 12, and teams with long layoffs tend to be rusty posing a dangerous scenario in a loser-out game.

Prairie Grove coach Steve Edmiston tried his best to find a means to channel all that pent-up energy and harness a "Cabin Fever" effect knowing he faced the prospect of finding his season over abruptly. That's exactly what materialized for Prairie Grove because Shiloh played games on Feb. 9 at Harrison and Feb. 12 at home against Pea Ridge and the Saints were sharper in the fourth quarter.

The 4A-4 also reinstated its conference tournament, which had been canceled -- giving an appearance the playing field was once again leveled for all teams from both conferences going into next week's 4A North Regional -- except it wasn't for neither the Prairie Grove boys or the Farmington girls.

Renowned Girls League

Defending Class 4A State Champion Farmington (17-5, 9-3) finished the 2020-2021 regular season one game behind Pea Ridge (18-4, 9-2) in the 4A-1 West Division standings, but had its chance to compete for a No. 1 seed going head-to-head with the Lady Blackhawks taken away when the 4A-1 decided regular season finales scheduled for Feb. 12 wouldn't be played in favor of beginning the tournament.

The 4A-1 remains one of the top conferences in the state for girls basketball. Three teams, Farmington, Harrison and Pea Ridge, qualified for the 2020 state tournament with the Lady Cardinals reaching the state finals for the second time since 2012 under coach Brad Johnson; and all three are contenders again this season.

Berryville played in the 2019 finals after reaching the state semifinals from 2016-18. In 2015, Prairie Grove advanced to the state semifinals for the fourth time under coach Kevin Froud, who guided the Lady Tigers to a state championship in 2010 plus state runner-up finishes in 2011 and 2013. Shiloh Christian won Class 4A crowns in 2009 and 2011 and Huntsville won in 2008.

Three Farmington seniors, Trinity Johnson, Tori Kersey and Camila Gurrola, were juniors on last year's Lady Cardinal squad that knocked off 2019 Class 4A state champion Batesville in the state semifinals, 76-64, then had their dream of winning an outright state championship dashed when the 2020 Class 4A state finals set for March 13 at Bank OZK Arena got postponed by the Arkansas Activities Association about 24 hours before tip-off over fears related to covid-19.

Farmington's team was already in a motel at Hot Springs when the devastating news broke. Seven juniors, Carson Dillard, Morgan Brye, Allie Devecsery, Mazzi Carlson, Megan Hernandez, Cadence Dean and Daisin Pruitt, also experienced that similar heartbreaking scenario as sophomores.

Bona Fide Opportunity

On the other side of the coin, the Pea Ridge girls didn't get an opportunity to win an outright prestigious league crown.

The 4A-1 district tournament was already scheduled to begin on Saturday, Feb. 13, but moving it up one day came at the expense of costing two of its members a bona fide opportunity to compete for a conference championship. Farmington and Pea Ridge could have played on Thursday, Feb. 11, before snow and ice fell across Northwest Arkansas.

Pea Ridge coach Heath Neal employed a platoon strategically, dividing up playing time with the Lady Blackhawks overcoming first-half foul trouble to defeat Prairie Grove, 65-38, in 4A-1 girls basketball action Tuesday, Feb. 9. Neal used nine different players in the opening quarter against pesky Prairie Grove (7-14, 2-9).

Foul trouble dictated some of that, as perhaps did Froud, who inserted 11 different girls into the first quarter lineup. No doubt, Neal wanted to keep fresh legs in the game to keep Prairie Grove from making a run, but the looming contest scheduled against Farmington on Friday, Feb. 12, also weighed into his decision making.

Epic Showdown Canceled

Froud's curiosity peaked at what impact an infusion of freshmen into Farmington's varsity lineup might bring to the epic showdown against Pea Ridge before it got canceled.

Neal hoped for a quick rejuvenation before the Feb. 12 scheduled confrontation with Farmington, which put a full-court press on for the entire game won by the Lady Blackhawks, 58-57, on Jan. 12. This time around Pea Ridge was to have home-court advantage, but Neal didn't expect anything less than an all-out battle.

"The last couple of years it's been a big matchup between us and them. It will be two teams jockeying for position for seeding for the district tournament with a conference championship on the line," Neal said after the Tuesday, Feb. 9 game at Prairie Grove.

Farmington was coming in off a 46-32 win over Gentry also on Tuesday, Feb. 9, and a win by the Lady Cardinals of two points or more would have flipped things around in the 4A-1 standings, giving Farmington one of the two top seeds.

Neal was well aware of the significance and was preparing in case Farmington decided to play a full-court run-and-jump again. Neal said in that event it wouldn't be as big a surprise as it was the last time.

"I was surprised they were able to implement that in the time that they had," Neal said. "They caused us 27 turnovers last time, so we knew we had some things to clean up."

He sought to make sure his girls got healthy and regain their energy back from the Feb. 9 game at Prairie Grove, but assured the Lady Blackhawks would be ready.