The Blackhawks survived a slow first quarter then blew past visiting Prairie Grove as Pea Ridge kept a grip on second place in the 4A-1 District race.
“We needed to win to maintain our place in the conference,” head coach Charley Clark said, “and we had every confidence that we could get it done.”
“We had a real good passing game going tonight, with the big guys getting set up inside. Of course, it is always fun to win at homecoming.” Clark concluded.
The ’Hawks took down the Tigers by 2 points in their first conference matchup, and the two combatants looked to have another close game as defensive play dominated in the first eight minutes. The ’Hawks’ offense was highlighted by a 3-point bomb from Jacob Hall with the Tigers ending the firstquarter leading by 2, 9-7.
Prairie Grove had their largest lead of the game when the visitors dropped in a 3-pointer to start second quarter action. The lead vanished rather quickly as Hall slid past Tiger defenders to deposit a layup which was followed closely by a trey by Dakota Woodward.
The scores tied the contest at 12-all with a little over six minutes left in the half.
More importantly, Prairie Grove would never lead again.
Hall burned the Tiger defense with a quick layup with Woodward turning a steal into an acrobatic layup for a 16-14 lead. Hall ripped another trey with Evan Tillman also scoring from downtown to forge a 22-14 lead. While Prairie Grove finally managed a pair of layups, the ’Hawks more than countered with layups by Ethan Higgins and Hallwhile Woodward hit another trey to give Pea Ridge a 29-18 lead with 2:11 left in the half.
Prairie Grove scored from underneath and also tipped another bucket in but Woodward and Hall tallied 3-pointers to end thehalf with a flourish as the ’Hawks went into intermission with a commanding 35-22 lead.
As in the second quarter, the Tigers started things off in the third quarter with a trey but a layup by Isaac Mangrum and a pair of free throws by Woodward gave the ’Hawks their biggest lead thus far at 39-25. While the visitors would drive for a couple of layups, scores from Woodward and Hall put the Tigers in a deeper hole, trailing the locals by 17, 46-29. A Tillman score just before the end of the quarter along with two scores from underneath by the Tigers put the homeboys up by a 48-33 lead going into the final quarter.
The ’Hawks’ solid passing game in the first three quarters suddenly vanished as errant efforts kept the ’Hawks off the scoreboard for almost 3 minutes into the final period. The Pea Ridge defense, however, kept the Tigers to a single goal and free throw during that span.
Finally, Hall threw in another trey with just over 5 minutes left in the game to dash whatever faint hopes the guests might have entertained.
With the ’Hawks content to burn the clock, they would only score 4 more points over the next three minutes but more importantly, the Tigers couldn’t get enough offense going to make a serious dent in the deficit. Over the last two minutes, Prairie Grove was forced to foul to get the ball, with Hall on the receiving end four times. The junior forward responded bysinking 5 of 7 shots to keep the Tigers at bay until the buzzer.
“We’ve got four games left in a very tight conference race. Three of the those four games are on the road so we have our work cut out for us,” Clark said.
Pea Ridge is currently alone in second place with a 7-3 record, trailing Shiloh which leads with an 8-1 mark. This Friday’s Senior Night clash with Berryville will be the last home game of the season.
Sports, Pages 7 on 02/01/2012