| Pirates
lose to Grangeville in season finale
In a highly anticipated matchup with the league championship on the line, the Prairie boys basketball team struggled to score in the first half and wound up losing 39-53 at Grangeville Tuesday, Feb. 10. A win would have given the Pirates a share of the league championship and it appeared they may have wanted to win too much. 
Grangeville played tight man defense against the Pirates who struggled with their shooting early on, making just 2 of 9 first quarter shots as Grangeville built a 6-14 lead. Prairie’s defense kept them in the game in the first 3 minutes of action as Chad Arnzen tied the score a 4-4 with 5:19 to play in the quarter but Grangeville finished out the period with a 2-10 run. If the Pirates shooting was cold in the first quarter, it was horrid in the second as they hit just 2 of 14 attempts and failed to score in the final 5:50 of the half. Grangeville finished the half with a 0-13 run that gave them a 12-31 lead at the half. Prairie’s shooting improved in the second half but Grangeville shot even better. The Bulldogs hit 6 of 9 attempts in the third quarter to help them keep the Pirates from making any headway into their lead. Grangeville took a 25-45 lead into the fourth quarter. Two baskets by Arnzen opened the fourth quarter scoring and Matt Baerlocher connected on a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 32-45 but that was as close as Prairie could get. Baerlocher wound up with 15 points to lead Prairie in scoring with Arnzen adding 10. Chaffee and Shane Doyle scored 4 each, Matt Forsmann added 3 points, Brent Frei 2 and Jacob Riener 1. Tyler Crane was held scoreless as over half his misses rimmed out. Grangeville’s Mr. Inside, Chris Kaschmitter, led the Bulldogs with 19 points while their Mr. Outside, Brad Mundt scored 17 and hit three 3-pointers. Grangeville also controlled the boards 26-34. Baerlocher and Crane had 6 rebounds each to lead Prairie. Baerlocher had 6 assists and 5 different Pirates had 1 steal each. Prairie wound up hitting just 16 of 50 attempts, 32%, and 4 of 9 free throws while Grangeville was 21 for 40 from the field, 52%, and 7 for 13 at the line.  With
the loss Prairie ends their regular season at 16-4 overall and 11-3 in
league play. It’s their best regular season mark since 1998 when they also
finished 16-4.
Prairie also lost the JV game although it was a closer contest as they fell 37-45. The JV’s also got off to a cold shooting start as they hit just 2 of 12 first quarter shots and trailed 5-11 at the end of the quarter. They came back in the second quarter though thanks to a hot streak by Shaun Daly, to take a brief lead at 15-14. Daly hit 3 straight shots, including a 3-pointer. His third basket tied the score at 14 and Seth Crane’s free throw gave them the lead with 3:23 left in the half. Daly then picked up his third foul and Prairie went scoreless the rest of the half as Grangeville took a 15-19 lead. Three times in the second half Prairie was able to pull within 3 points but couldn’t get any closer as Grangeville’s Reed Allen kept coming up with baskets inside to thwart any rally. Allen hit all 5 second half shots. Daly wound up as Prairie’s leading scorer with 12 points with Mat Forsmann scoring 7, Kelby Wilson and Crane 5 each, J.D. Riener 4, Kevin Funke 3 and Corey Schaeffer 1. Grangeville held a 36-42 rebounding advantage with Crane and Wilson grabbing 9 boards each to lead Prairie. Forsmann had 3 steals and Funke had 6 assists. Prairie was 13 for 48 from the field and 8 for 13 at the line while Grangeville was 15 for 43 from the field and 12 for 25 at the line. Prairie 6 6 13 14 39 Grangeville 14 17 14 8 -53 Prairie-Crane 0-9, 0-1, 0; Chaffee 2-3, 0-0, 4; Baerlocher 5-15, 3-4, 15; Doyle 2-7, 0-0, 4; Arnzen 5-10, 0-0, 10; Frei 1-2, 0-0, 2; Riener 0-1, 1-4, 1; Nuxoll 0-1, 0-0, 0; Forsmann 1-2, 0-0, 3. 3-pointers-Baerlocher 2, Forsmann. Grangeville-McCulley 1-2, 0-0, 2; Mundt 7-13, 0-0, 17; Frei 1-5, 0-0, 2; Allen 4-6, 0-2, 9; Kaschmitter 6-9, 7-11, 19; Mignerey 1-2, 0-0, 2; Lind 0-1, 0-0, 0; Macy 0-1, 0-0, 0; Smith 1-1, 0-0, 2. 3-pointers-Mundt 3, Allen. Pirates win District Opener Orofino threw a scare into the Prairie Pirates for the first 11 minutes of the district tournament opener for both teams but Prairie then pulled away and wound up winning 57-36 Monday, Feb. 16 at Lewiston. Prairie connected on just 3 of 13 shots in the first quarter and led just 10-8 at the end of the quarter thanks mostly to 10 turnovers by the Maniacs. 
Orofino scored the first two baskets of the second quarter to take the lead at 10-12 but a steal by Tyler Crane led to a 3-point play by Matt Baerlocher that gave the Pirates the lead for good. That started a 17-1 run by the Pirates to end the half as Prairie improved their shooting to 6 for 12 in the second quarter while Orofino hit just 2 of 11. Defense keyed the run for Prairie as Brent Frei came up with 3 second quarter steals, one of which led to a fast break lay-up by Mat Forsmann. Baerlocher wound up with 11 first half points, scoring almost as many as Orofino. In the third quarter Orofino tried trading baskets with Prairie but a 3-pointer each by Shane Doyle and Tyler Crane helped prairie extend their lead to 18 points at 36-18. The Maniacs trimmed the lead back to 14 but a basket in the lane by Chad Arnzen and a 3-pointer by Baerlocher gave Prairie a 41-22 lead after 3 quarters.  The
fourth quarter saw the Pirates maintain their advantage over the scrappy
Maniacs as Baerlocher added 6 more points, including a 3-pointer while
Doyle scored 5 and Arnzen 4.
Baerlocher wound up with 20 points to lead the scoring with Arnzen scoring 9, Doyle 8, Crane 6, Frei 4, Jake Chaffee and Forsmann 3 each and Jacob Nuxoll and Jacob Riener 2 each. Prairie managed to take a slim 40-38 advantage on the boards after Orofino had outrebounded them 8-14 in the opening quarter. Arnzen had 9 rebounds to lead the Pirates. Wade Garland had 13 boards for the Maniacs. Frei and Baerlocher had 4 steals each and Baerlocher had 4 assists. Prairie was 19 for 47 from the field, 40%, and 13 for 24 at the line while Orofino was 15 for 53 from the field, 28%, and 4 for 10 at the line. With the win Prairie improves to 17-4 on the season and will play Potlatch at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19, in the District semifinals. Prairie 10 17 14 16 -57 Orofino 8 5 9 14 -36 Prairie-T. Crane 2-12, 0-0, 6; Chaffee 1-2, 1-2, 3; Frei 2-2, 0-4, 4; Baerlocher 5-10, 8-9, 20; Doyle 3-9, 0-1, 8; Arnzen 4-5, 1-2, 9; Nuxoll 0-0, 2-2, 2; Riener 1-5, 0-0, 2; Fosmann 1-2, 1-2, 3; S. Crane 0-0, 0-2, 0. 3-pointers-T. Crane 2, Baerlocher 2, Doyle 2. Orofino-Savage 3-10, 1-2, 9; Copeland 4-14, 0-0, 8; Garland 1-8, 0-0, 2; Blake 2-6, 0-2, 4; Marvin 4-10, 3-4, 11; Crecelius 0-1, 0-2, 0; McLeod 0-1, 0-0, 0; Mangum 0-0, 0-0, 0; Morin 1-3, 0-0, 2. 3-pointers-Savage 2. Wrestlers finish regular season The Prairie Wrestling team ended their regular season by competing in a 4-school match at Grangeville Friday, Feb. 13. 
Nick Uhlenkott wrestled twice, winning both matches while the rest of the squad in attendance wrestled one time each. Anthony Duman at 119 lbs. was first up on the mat and lost to Losberger of Grangeville by pin in 45 seconds. Uhlenkott then wrestled Bunch of Kamiah in a tough match. Nick was behind 4-5 late in the match but managed to turn Bunch on his back in the final 10 seconds long enough to pick up 2 points for a near fall and pull out the 6-5 victory. Logan Lustig then went up against a Kamiah wrestler and fought a tough match as well, losing 8-11. Alex Matson ran up against Hollibaugh of Orofino, who continued his mastery of Matson with a pin in 1:38.  Shane
Poxleitner gained a measure of revenge for an overtime loss the previous
week by beating Jackson of Kamiah 7-3.
Richard Sonnen wrestled Chateau of Grangeville and lost by pin with just 1 second left on the clock in the first period. Uhlenkott had his second match of the night and built a 15-5 lead before winning by pin with just 30 seconds left in the match over Salisbury of Grangeville. In the final Prairie match of the evening, Cody Gehring was pinned by Bunch of Kamiah in 1:34. The team will compete at district this Saturday, Feb. 21 at Kamiah starting at 10 a.m. with the top 4 in each weight class advancing to the state tournament at Pocatello which starts Thursday, Feb. 26. Winter Sports Schedules March 4, 5, 6 State Tournament at Boise February 26th/28th State Pocatello TBA |
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