| Pirates
suffer first loss
The Prairie boys basketball team suffered their first loss of the season as they lost 50-60 to Wilson High School of Tacoma at the Coeur d’Alene Inn-vitational Holiday Tournament Monday, Dec. 29 at the North Idaho College Gym in Coeur d’Alene. 
The quick, athletic Wilson team jumped on Prairie at the start to take a 0-6 lead. Wilson is in Washington’s 3A division which is the second largest classification similar to Idaho’s 4-A division. Prairie answered back with a putback by Tanner Ross and a lay-up off an inbounds play by Jake Bruner to cut the lead to 4-6. Wilson connected on a 3 but Rhett Schlader answered back with a 3-pointer for Prairie to again cut the lead to 2 at 7-9. Wilson answered with a 0-8 run but Prairie answered back with an 8-0 run of their own as Bryson Higgins scored a lay-up, Schlader hit another 3 and Bruner scored an old fashioned 3-point play to again pull the Pirates within 2 at 15-17. 2 free throws and a 3-pointer by Wilson pushed the lead back to 7 at 15-22 at the end of the first quarter. Prairie got the lead down to 3 at 23-26 but every time the Pirates would get close, Wilson would pull away again. The Rams pulled away to a 9-point lead by the half at 27-36. Schlader and Bruner with 13 and 10 points respectively did the bulk of the scoring for Prairie with Ross and Higgins adding 2 points each. Lucas Arnzen doesn’t seem quite back to the level he was playing at last year as of yet and that may be due to the shoulder injury he suffered during the football season. He missed a couple of close-in shots that he normally makes. Wilson led by as many as 11 in the third quarter at 33-44 but Prairie fought back to within 7 by the end of the period on a 6-2 run where all 8 points scored came at the free throw line. Prairie had 3 each from Schlader and Bruner. Terran Peery opened the fourth quarter scoring when he snagged a long offensive rebound and took the ball in for a basket. John Mager then made a nice move inside to get a lay-up that cut the lead to 43-46 with 6:43 to play.  Wilson
answered with 5 straight points and Prairie was unable to get any
closer than 4 the rest of the way as they couldn’t get enough open shots
to drop and also had some struggles at the free throw line hitting just
3 of 9 from the line in the fourth quarter.
A free throw by Arnzen got Prairie within 4 at 50-54 with 1:25 left but Wilson was able to play keepaway and connected on 6 straight free throws to ice the game. Schlader had 21 points to lead Prairie in scoring with Bruner adding 16 points and 12 rebounds. Ross scored 4, Arnzen 3 and Higgins, Peery and Mager 2 each. Prairie, who had a height advantage, had a 32-26 edge on the boards with Arnzen adding 7 rebounds to Bruner’s 12. Schlader had 2 steals and Arnzen and Higgins had 4 assists each. Prairie was 17 for 46 from the field, 37%, and 13 for 23 from the line, 57%. Wilson was 21 for 45 from the field, 47%, and 16 for 20 at the line, 80%. Wilson hit 8 of 12 from the field in the first quarter to get them off to their hot start. While Prairie had just 2 players doing the bulk of the scoring, Wilson had 4 players in double figures led by Dom Hammond with 17. Prairie was to play Ridgeview of Redmond, Oregon at 1:45 p.m. Tuesday. If they won that they were to play at 1:45 p.m. Wednesday. A loss would put them in the 1st game of the day at noon. Prairie is now 5-1 on the season. Prairie 15 12 12 11 -50 Wilson 22 14 10 14 -60 Prairie-Schlader 6-15, 6-8, 21; Higgins 1-2, 0-0, 2; Bruner 5-12, 6-11, 16; Ross 2-7, 0-2, 4; Arnzen 1-6, 1-2, 3; Peery 1-3, 0-0, 2; Mager 1-2, 0-0, 2. 3-pointers-Schlader 3. Wilson-Hammond 5-8, 7-8, 17; Ruffin 0-0, 0-0, 0; Palu-Thompson 5-8, 4-6, 14; Cotton-Welch 2-7, 2-2, 7; Lofton-Brown 6-8, 0-0, 12; Jenkins 3-14, 3-4, 10; Booth 0-0, 0-0, 0; Kelly 0-0, 0-0, 0; Yisrael 0-0, 0-0, 0; Reubel-Harris 0-0, 0-0, 0. 3-pointers-Cotton-Welch, Jenkins.
*indicates league game DECEMBER 9-Moscow, there, 5:30 p.m., won 65-43 12-Grangeville, there, Idaho County Shootout, V only, won 70-62 16-Troy, there*, won 65-32 18-Kamiah, here*, won 60-26 19-Genesee, there*, won 71-40 29-30-31-NIC Tourn. at Cd’A, lost to Wilson 50-60; Lost to Ridgeway 54-57; beat GP Vanier 62-45, details on latter two games next week JANUARY 6-Lapwai, here* 9-C.V., there* 15-Potlatch, here*, 5 p.m. 20-Genesee, here* 23-Kamiah, there* 27-Grangeville, here 28-Asotin, here, quad, JV 4:30, V, 6:30, originally scheduled for 1/26-rescheduled to 1/28 29-Troy, here* FEBRUARY 5-Lapwai, there* 7-C.V., here*, 1 p.m. 11-Moscow, there, 5:30 p.m. 14-Potlatch, there*, 1 p.m. 17, 18, 19, 23, 24 & 27-District at LCSC 26-State Play-In #1 at Wallace 28-State Play-In #2 at Cascade March 5-7-State at Caldwell Below is the Academic Bowl Schedule for Prairie for the 2014-15 school year. 6:30-8:30 p.m. Jan. 5 or 12-at Grangeville February-Tournaments March 9-at Prairie April 13-at Timberline Junior High 6:15 to 7:45 p.m. March 17-at Grangeville April 21-at Nezperce |
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