| Pirates
edge Indians in overtime
The Prairie Pirates had to go to overtime to beat Nezperce in their season opener, winning 62-59 at  Nezperce
in a non-league encounter last Friday, Dec. 5.
Nezperce, with the advantage of 2 games already under their belts, came out firing in the first quarter and hit 8 of 13 shots to jump out to the early lead. Nezperce fired away from the outside, hitting 3 of 5 3-pointers in the quarter but led by only 4 points at the end of the quarter, 15-19, as Prairie attacked the inside. David Sigler scored 5 points taking the ball inside, converting a 3-point play in the process, while Branden Waller added 4 points. Nezperce hit another 3-pointer to open the second quarter and added a lay-up off of a steal to push the lead to 9 and later led by as many as 10 in the quarter at 18-28. Waller converted a 3-point play and then scored a putback to cut the lead in half and Prairie still trailed by 4 at halftime at 28-32. The two teams traded baskets in the third quarter as Prairie would cut the lead to 2 and then Nezperce would push it back to 4. Prairie had a chance to tie it midway through the period when Conner Rieman scored a putback and then added a free throw but he missed the second attempt which would’ve tied the score at 36. Nezperce answered with a basket to make it a 3-point margin but Devin Schmidt scored a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 1 and Waller gave Prairie their first lead of the game with a driving lay-up with 1:36 left in the third quarter. The lead didn’t last long though as Nezperce closed out the quarter with a pair of free throws and a basket to take a 3-point lead and then open the fourth quarter with 3 more free throws to push the lead back to 6 at 39-45. Prairie rallied with Schmidt breaking out of a shooting slump with an 18-footer from the left wing. Waller connected from the elbow and Sigler connected for the Pirates first 3-pointer of the game to give Prairie back the lead at 46-45 with 5:22 left. Nezperce’s Damon Leitch scored inside to give Nezperce back the lead 17 seconds later but Sigler drove the baseline and scored on a reverse lay-up to put the Pirates back on top. Waller added a putback to put Prairie up by 3 with 3:15 left. Leitch answered with a long 3-pointer to tie the game and then added a free throw to put Nezperce back on top. He missed the second attempt and Prairie rebounded which led to Sigler hitting a 3-pointer from the top of the key to put Prairie on top by 2 with 1:46 left. Both sides had their chances but neither team scored until Leitch connected from the baseline with 18 seconds left to tie the score.  Prairie
came back with a play that gave Tyler Forsmann a lay-up chance with 5 seconds
left but the ball wouldn’t drop in. Leitch rebounded and raced down the
floor and just missed from about 15 feet out as the game went into overtime.
Leitch scored a free throw to open the overtime but Sigler put Prairie back on top with a lay-up. Nezperce couldn’t answer and Kyle Daly wound up getting fouled. He made both free throws to give Prairie a 57-54 lead with 1:26. Nezperce came back with another free throw but missed the second with Eric Daly rebounding the miss. That led to Kyle Daly being fouled again. This time he made the first but missed the second with Forsmann rebounding the miss. That led to Eric Daly being sent to the free throw line and he made only the second of 2 attempts. Leitch wound up getting fouled on the other end but also made only the second of 2 shots. Prairie took the ball downcourt where Eric Daly got fouled again and he made the first of two shots with 14 seconds left to put Prairie up by 4. Leitch answered with a 3-pointer that cut the lead to just 1 with 4 seconds left. Prairie inbounded the ball to Sigler who was fouled immediately. Sigler drained both free throws to give Prairie a 62-59 lead with 3 seconds left. Leitch was able to get the ball down the floor and just missed a 3-point try at the buzzer as Prairie held on to win. Sigler wound up with 21 points to lead the Pirates in scoring while Waller added 18 before leaving the game near the end of regulation with an injury. Rieman scored 7 points while Kyle and Eric Daly scored 5 each. Schmidt scored 4 and Forsmann scored 2. 
Leitch had 29 for Nezperce but no one else scored more than 8. Prairie had a 41-38 edge in rebounding with Waller collecting 12 rebounds while Forsmann had 8 and the Daly twins had 7 rebounds each. Sigler and Waller had 3 steals each while Sigler also had 3 assists. Prairie was 23 for 62 from the field, 37%, and 14 for 25 at the line, 56%. Nezperce was 19 for 52 from the field, 37%, and 15 for 23 at the line, 65%. Prairie had a lot easier time of it in the JV game as they jumped out to an 11-2 lead after one quarter and led 25-11 at the half. Derek Schaeffer scored 7 of Prairie’s 11 first quarter points. Prairie forced the Indians into 9 first quarter turnovers and held them to just 7 shot attempts of which they made just 1. Brock Heath, Joe Schumacher and Josh Zigler scored 4 points each in the second quarter. Prairie continued to expand their lead in the fourth quarter as Heath added 5 more points while 5 other players scored 2 each. Prairie took a 40-21 lead into the fourth quarter. Prairie still led by 19 at 44-25 with 6:40 left when Nezperce put together a bit of a rally. The Indians scored 6 straight points to pull within 13 but couldn’t get any closer. Prairie answered with their own 6-1 run to push the lead back to 18 before Nezperce closed with a 5 point spurt to make the final margin 13 points. Heath wound up as Prairie’s leading scorer with 9 points while Schumacher scored 8. Schaeffer and Zigler scored 7 each while Justin Schmidt scored 5 and Beau Schlader, Seth Guyer and Ryan Dalgliesh scored 4 each. Andy Gabica scored 2. Prairie had a 45-37 rebounding edge with Schaeffer and Gabica collecting 9 rebounds each. Heath had 4 steals and Schumacher and Schlader had 2 assists each. Prairie 15 13 11 14 9—62 Nezperce 19 13 10 11 6—59 Prairie-E. Daly 1-3, 3-6, 5; K. Daly 1-4, 3-4, 5; Sigler 8-16, 3-3, 21; Forsmann 1-7, 0-0, 2; Waller 8-19, 2-7, 18; Holthaus 0-3, 0-0, 0; Schmidt 1-6, 2-2, 4; Rieman 3-4, 1-2, 7; Schaeffer 0-0, 0-0, 0. 3-pointers-Sigler 2. Nezperce-Carpenter 4-6, 0-1, 8; Leitch 8-26, 9-14, 29; Killmar 1-2, 0-0, 3; Scott 2-7, 2-2, 7; Fuchs 2-4, 1-2, 5; Riggers 0-4, 3-4, 3; Zenner 2-3, 0-0, 4; Wahl 0-0, 0-0, 0. 3-pointers-Leitch 4, Killmar, Scott.  Pirates lose to Genesee The Prairie Pirates found out Monday, Dec. 8, that they still have some improving to do to match up with Genesee as the Bulldogs won going away 35-53 in the Pirates’ home opener. Genesee jumped out to an 8-16 lead by the end of the first quarter and just gradually built up their lead throughout the game. They led 16-26 at halftime and 26-37 after 3 quarters. The Pirates were limited to just 15 baskets during the game with none of them being from 3-point range. Tyler Forsmann led the Pirates in scoring with 9 points with Branden Waller scoring 7, David Sigler and Devin Schmidt 6 each, Eric Daly, Kyle Holthaus and Conner Rieman 2 each and Kyle Daly 1. The loss drops the Pirates to 1-1 on the season. The JV’s meanwhile picked up their first win over Genesee since Prairie joined the White Pine League 47-36. The JV’s are now 2-0 on the season. Genesee 16 10 11 16—53 Prairie 8 8 10 9—35 Prairie-E. Daly 1, 0-0, 2; K. Daly 0, 1-2, 1; Holthaus 1, 0-0, 2; Schmidt 3, 0-0, 6; Rieman 1, 0-0, 2; Sigler 2, 2-4, 6; Forsmann 4, 1-2, 9; Waller 3, 1-2, 7. 3-pointers-none. Genesee-Udy 2, 2-5, 7; Hermann 1, 2-2, 4; Dahmen 9, 3-5, 21; Carlson 3, 1-2, 7; Nelson 1, 0-0, 2; Borth 0, 0-0, 0; Berry 5, 2-2, 12. 3-pointers-Udy. 
The football players shown received individual awards at the banquet Sunday where nearly 200 people attended. Back from left are Kyler Shumway, captain, offensive lineman of the year, first team all-league offensive and defensive lineman and all-state offensive and defensive lineman; Colton Nuxoll, JV most improved and Scout Offense medal of honor (SOMH); Nate Matson; Chase Nuxoll, most inspirational; Devin Schmidt, all-league honorable mention linebacker; Derek Schaeffer, JV defensive lineman of the year; Conner Rieman, all-league honorable mention defensive lineman; Tyler Forsmann, defensive lineman of the year, first team all-league defensive lineman; Josh Roeper, SOMH. Front from left are Branden Waller, captain, defensive player of the year, all-league defensive player of the year, first team all-league linebacker, second team running back, all-state linebacker; Tim Frei, JV most inspirational, SOMH; Kyle Daly, captain, offensive player of the year, all-league offensive player of the year, first team all-league running back, second team all-league linebacker, all-state running back; Justin Schmidt, JV defensive player of the year, SOMH; Kyle Holthaus, captain, most improved, second team all-league quarterback; Ronnie Chandler, captain, first team all-league offensive lineman; Cody Schumacher, SOMH; David Sigler, captain, first team all-league wide receiver and defensive back, all-state wide receiver, defensive back and punter. Not shown are Dustin Schaeffer, JV offensive player of the year; Joe Schumacher, JV offensive lineman of the year and SOMH, and Brock Heath and Jimmy Ingebretson, SOMH’s. Also, as of Monday, Prairie was ranked 16th in the nation for non-11-man high school teams on MaxPreps.com PIRATES BOYS BASKETBALL SCHEDULE FOR 2008-09 *indicates league game 8-Genesee, here, lost 35-53 11-Grangeville, here 15-Kamiah, there 18-Troy, there 19-Council, here, 8 p.m. 29-Wilder Tournament, TBA 30-Wilder Tournament, TBA 10-C.V., there* 13-Troy, here* 15-Grangeville, there 16-Deary, there* 22-Timberline, there* 24-Lapwai, here* 27-Highland, here 29-Nezperce, here 9-Culdesac, here 13-Highland, there 16,20,24,26-District at LCSC 28-State Play-in Game, TBA March 5-7-State at Boise PIRATES WRESTLING SCHEDULE FOR 2008-09 DECEMBER 9-at Grangeville, 6 p.m. 20-Grab Bag Invitational, Pullman 30-Pomeroy Invitational 9 & 10-Kamiah Invitational 13-at Orofino, 6 p.m. 16 & 17-Orofino Invitational 29-at Kamiah, 6 p.m. 30 & 31-New Plymouth Tournament 10-at Orofino, 6 p.m. 20 &21-Districts, at Grangeville 26-28-State at Pocatello |
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