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Pirates beat Lapwai for District title
The Prairie Lady Pirates won their first District championship since 2002 when they beat Lapwai 51-41 Friday, Feb. 10 at the LCSC Activity Center in Lewiston. That last District title was also the last time they had beaten Lapwai. 
With the win they go to State as the #1 seed from District 2 and will play Glenns Ferry at 5:15 p.m. PST at Columbia High School in Nampa, the same place they played last year. Lapwai plays Liberty Charter at 12:15 and Troy plays Grace at 2. They are both in the opposite half of the bracket from Prairie. Hagerman and Notus will play in the final game of the day. Prairie will play one of those teams in the second round. Prairie took the early lead in the District title game thanks to a pair of 3 pointers by Megan Sigler. They led 9-4 at the 3:11 mark of the first quarter. Lapwai then went on a 0-10 run to take the lead and led 11-16 at the quarter break. For the first 3:40 of the second quarter the two team traded baskets. Over the final 4:20 though Prairie outscored the Wildcats 15-3 to take a 29-23 halftime lead. Sigler started a 10-0 run with a shot from the elbow. Tanna Schlader scored a putback, MaKayla Schaeffer stole the ball and drove for a lay-up, MeShel Rad scored a putback and then added a lay-up on a feed from Schaeffer to make it 24-20. Lapwai’s Celilo Miles hit a 3-pointer to break that run but another putback by Rad and a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Sigler gave Prairie their halftime lead. Schaeffer scored from 15 feet out to open the second half scoring but Lapwai then rallied, using their press to force turnovers as they went on a 0-8 run to tie the game at 31. A perimeter shot by Schlader broke the run but Miles tied it again with a putback. A basket from just inside the 3-point line by Callie Mader put Prairie on top for good and Sigler hit her 4th 3-pointer of the game to give Prairie a 5-point lead. Lapwai hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 38-36 at the end of the quarter. Mader opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer and after a Lapwai score, hit a line drive shot from 17 feet out to. Rad then scored inside to push the lead to 7 at 45-38 with 3:21 to play.  A
free throw and then a steal and drive by Lapwai’s Natahnee Spencer cut
the lead to 45-41 with just over 2 minutes to play but that was to be Lapwai’s
last points of the night.
Prairie added 6 more points, all at the free throw line, to close out the game. Sigler hit 2 of them and Rad went 4 for 6 at the line for the final 4 points. Defense and rebounding and a hot shooting second quarter spelled the difference. Prairie outrebounded Lapwai 52-35 as Rad pulled down 20 rebounds and Schlader collected 16. Defensively they held Spencer to just 13 points after she had scored 30 in the regular season matchup. A big difference was that she wasn’t getting the foul calls as she shot just 5 free throws compared to 20 in the previous game. Prairie did a great job of contending every Lapwai shot and keeping Spencer in check as she attempted just 10 shots in the game. Also, although Prairie turned the ball over 29 times in the game, there were only a couple where Lapwai would score, steal the inbounds pass and score again. Sigler scored 18 points to lead Prairie in scoring with 13 of those coming in the first half. Rad scored 13, Mader 9 with 7 in the second half, Schlader 6 and Schaeffer 5. Schlader had 4 steals while Schaeffer had 3. Sigler had 6 assists while Schaeffer had 4 and Mader had 3. Prairie was 19 for 46 from the field (8 for 16 in the aforementioned 2nd quarter), 41%, and 8 for 17 at the line, 47%. Lapwai was 14 for 55 from the field, 25%, and 8 for 12 at the line, 75%. Prairie will take an 18-4 record into the state tournament. Prairie 11 18 9 13 -51 Lapwai 16 7 13 5 -41 Prairie-Mader 4-6, 0-0, 9; Schlader 3-6, 0-0, 6; Sigler 6-20, 2-4, 18; Schaeffer 2-5, 1-2, 5; Rad 4-17, 5-9, 13; VonBargen 0-2, 0-0, 0; Heitman 0-0, 0-2, 0. 3-pointers-Sigler 4, Mader. Lapwai-Spencer 4-10, 4-5, 13; Ramsey 0-5, 0-0, 0; Andrew 0-1, 0-0, 0; Miles 3-11, 0-0, 7; Cunningham 3-13, 1-2, 7; Shawl 2-9, 3-5, 8; Ellenwood 2-6, 0-0, 6. 3-pointers-Ellenwood 2, Spencer, Miles, Shawl.
The Prairie Lady Pirates are shown with the District Championship trophy. Kneeling are the seniors, Megan Sigler, MeShel Rad and MaKayla Schaeffer. Standing from left are assistant coach Sarah Walsh, Tanna Schlader, Taylor Heitman, Keely Schmidt, Beka Bruner, Leah Holthaus, Tyler Workman, Callie Mader, Shelby VonBargen and head coach Lori Mader. 
The state bracket. All times are MST. PIRATES GIRLS BASKETBALL SCHEDULE FOR 2011-12 *indicates league game 17-C.V, here, won 53-38 21-Kendrick, there--won 46-30 22-Troy, there, lost 45-54 28-Timberline, here, won 55-43 29-Potlatch, here*, won 45-12 6-C.V., there*, won 56-52 8-Genesee, there*, won 59-30 10-Kamiah, there, lost 41-52 12-Troy, here*, won 53-47 16-Grangeville, there, won 39-27 6-Lapwai, there*, lost 49-53 10-Deary, there*, won 38-17 13-Nezperce, there, won 55-38 20-Kamiah, here, lost 38-58 24-Summit, here, won 35-33 25-Kendrick, here*, won 58-39 Jan. 30, Feb 1, 3, 6 , 8 & 10-District at LCSC-defeated Deary 52-24 in District opener. Beat Troy 49-36. Beat Lapwai 51-41-District Champs!!! Feb. 16-18-State at Nampa's Columbia High School, Play Glenns Ferry at 5:15 p.m. PST at Columbia High School. See Bracket above. |
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