Pirates win twice
The Prairie Pirates closed out their regular season with a pair of league road wins. On Thursday, Feb. 18 they traveled to Potlatch and clinched the #2 seed into the District Tournament with a 62-23 win. On Saturday, they traveled to Kamiah and won 52-34.
The game at Potlatch was a rescheduling of a game originally set to be played Dec. 19 that was postponed due to Covid-19 issues with the Loggers.
Prairie had little trouble with the winless Loggers as they took leads of 6-0, 18-4 and 26-6 in the first quarter. Cole Schlader scored 10 points and Zach Rambo 7 in the quarter for the Pirates.
Prairie opened up the second quarter with 6 straight points to push the lead to 32-6. Lane Schumacher scored 4 of those and Tyler Wemhoff added a basket as Prairie completed a 14-0 run that spanned the quarter break.
Potlatch then put together their best stretch of the game, outscoring Prairie 3-7 before Prairie closed the half with a 7-0 run with Schlader scoring 5 of those and Wyatt Ross the other 2.
Schlader had 15 points by halftime.
Schlader added 7 more in the third quarter while Rambo and Ross added 4 each as the Pirates continued to pull away, taking a 57-21 lead into the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter was played with a running clock as the Pirates outscored the Loggers 5-2 to win by 39.
Schlader led the scoring with 22 points while Rambo and Ross were also in double figures with 13 and 12 points respectively. Schumacher scored 9, Wemhoff 5 and Shane Hanson 1.
Potlatch outrebounded the Pirates 15-25. Rambo led the Pirates with 6 rebounds.
Schlader had 8 steals and 6 assists.
The Pirates were 26 for 39 from the field, 67%, and 5 for 15 at the line, 33%. Potlatch was 10 for 30 from the field, 33%, and 3 for 4 at the line, 75%.
There was no JV game.
Prairie 26 16 15 5 -62
Potlatch 6  7   8 2 -23
Prairie-Schlader 8-12, 4-5, 22; Ross 6-6, 0-0, 12; Schwartz 0-2, 0-0, 0; Rambo 6-8, 0-3, 13; Wemhoff 2-6, 1-4, 5; Schumacher 4-6, 0-0, 9; Hasselstrom 0-0, 0-0, 0; Hanson 0-0, 1-2, 1; Alfrey 0-0, 0-0, 0; Forsmann 0-0, 0-2, 0. 3-pointers-Schlader 2, Rambo, Schumacher.
Potlatch-Brown 2-3, 0-0, 4; Clark 2-5, 1-2, 5; Vowels 2-7, 0-0, 4; Howard 4-11, 0-0, 8; Barnes 0-4, 0-0, 0; Busby 0-0, 0-0, 0; Amos 0-0, 0-0, 0. 3-pointers-none.
The game at Kamiah was originally scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 16 but was postponed due to school closures that day. It was rescheduled for Saturday afternoon because that’s when they could get referees.
The game didn’t really mean anything to the Pirates as they had already clinched the #2 seed into District but for Kamiah a win meant they would host Logos in a loser-out game at District on Monday, Feb. 22 while a lost meant they would have to travel to Moscow to play Logos.
It was either poor shooting or great defense that ruled the first quarter as Kamiah jumped out to a 2-7 lead with Prairie getting a basket by Rambo and a free throw by Schlader to pull within 5-7 by the end of the quarter.
Prairie was just 2 for 8 shooting in the quarter while the Kubs were 3 for 13.
Kamiah scored to open the second quarter for a 5-9 lead but the Pirates outscored the Kubs 9-2 over the next 5 minutes to take a 14-11 lead. Brody Hasselstrom started the run by grabbing a long offense rebound and driving in for a lay-up. Rambo followed with a free throw. After a Kamiah basket, Schlader scored on a drive to the hoop and then sank 2 free throws to give Prairie their first lead of the game at 12-11 with 3:02 left in the half. Hanson scored on a feed from Ross to make it 14-11.
A 3 by Kamiah tied it but Prairie took a 16-14 lead at the half when Schlader made a no-look flip to Hanson who made a lay-up.
Kamiah scored the first 5 points of the second half to retake the lead at 16-19.
Prairie went scoreless until Wemhoff made a free throw at the 4:54 mark. Schumacher followed with a pair of free throws to tie the game with 4:05 left. 10 seconds later Schlader picked up his fourth foul with Kamiah scoring one of the two free throws to retake the lead.
On Prairie’s ensuing possession Schumacher sank a 3 from the wing to put the Pirates back on top. A steal by Wemhoff led to a putback by Hasselstrom.
Kamiah scored to pull back within 2 but Schumacher answered with a 3 from almost the same spot as his previous one. Ross drove in for a lay-up to make it 29-22 with 1:06 left in the third quarter.
Kamiah made 2 free throws but Schumacher then hit his third 3-pointer, again from the same spot as the previous 2 and Hasselstrom sank a 3 at the buzzer to give Prairie a 35-24 lead after 3 quarters. They had outscored the Kubs 16-4 over the final 3:40 of the quarter, all after Schlader went to the bench with his fourth foul.
Schlader started the fourth quarter and was fouled on a lay-up, converting a 3-point play to open the scoring in the quarter.
A 3 by Kamiah was then followed by a 6 straight points by the Pirates, 4 of them at the line. Rambo and Schlader each converted both ends of 1 and 1’s and then Schlader scored a lay-up for a 44-27 lead with 4:51 to play.
Kamiah scored, then Prairie answered with another 6 straight points, all by Schumacher. Schumacher drove for a lay-up, made 2 free throws and then drove in for another lay-up to make it 50-29 with 3:01 left.
Kamiah scored a free throw but Rambo answered with a lay-up to make it 52-30. Kamiah then scored the final 4 points to make the final margin 18.
Schumacher led the Pirates in scored with 17 points, all in the second half. Schlader scored 12 with Rambo adding 9, Hasselstrom 7, Hanson 4, Ross 2 and Wemhoff 1.
Schlader had 12 rebounds to lead Prairie to a 37-26 edge on the boards.
Wemhoff had 2 steals and Rambo and Ross each had 3 assists.
Prairie was 17 for 38 from the field, 45%, and 14 for 19 at the line, 74%. The Pirates were 10 for 11 at the line in the second half. Kamiah was 13 for 53 from the field, 25%, and 4 for 7 at the line, 57%.
The Pirates finish the regular season with a 15-4 record overall, 11-3 in league play. They will host Genesee Wednesday, Feb. 24 at 6 p.m. in a District game. #3 seed Genesee beat #6 seed C.V. Monday, Feb. 22 in a loser-out game.
The JV team closed out their season with a 44-48 loss to the Kubs as the Kubs swept the season series.
Prairie took an 8-5 lead in the game as Lee Forsmann scored 4 points and Morgan Poxleitner and Noah Behler each scored 2. However Kamiah finished the first quarter with a 1-11 run to take a 9-16 lead. Behler had Prairie’s only point in the final 3:25 of the first quarter.
The Kubs outscored the Pirates 6-8 in the second quarter to take a 15-23 halftime lead. Forsmann scored 5 of Prairie’s 6 second quarter points with Travis Alfrey scoring the other point.
In the third quarter Prairie fell behind by as many as 12 at 25-37 before mountain a comeback.
Colton McElroy scored to make it 27-37 at the end of the quarter then the Pirates opened the fourth quarter with 6 straight to get back into the game.
Hanson scored a basket, Levi Walsh and Alfrey each had a free throw and Forsmann scored a lay-up to cut the deficit to 4.
The closest Prairie would get was 3 points with 2:14 left when Forsmann scored on a feed from Hanson that made it 37-40.
Kamiah then made 6 of 8 free throws against a single free throw by Hanson to push their lead back to 8 at 38-46.
Behler made 2 free throws to cut the deficit to 6 but Kamiah answered with 2 at the line. Forsmann then scored the game’s final 4 points to cut the final margin to 4.
Forsmann scored 17 points to lead the JV’s in scoring. Alfrey scored 8, Hanson 6, Behler 5, Poxleitner and Walsh 3 each and McElroy 2.
Prairie had a 41-30 edge on the boards led by Hanson with 11 while Forsmann had 10.
Forsmann, Weston Riener and McElroy each had 2 steals while McElroy had 3 assists.
Prairie was 15 for 46 from the field, 33%, and 14 for 23 at the line, 61%. Kamiah was 16 for 44 from the field, 36%, and 12 for 22 at the line, 54%.
Prairie   5 11 19 17 -52
Kamiah 7   7 10 10 -34
Prairie-Schlader 3-11, 6-9, 12; Ross 1-4, 0-0, 2; Rambo 3-8, 3-4, 9; Schumacher 5-8, 4-4, 17; Wemhoff 0-1, 1-2, 1; Hasselstrom 3-4, 0-0, 7; Schwartz 0-0, 0-0, 0; Hanson 2-2, 0-0, 4; Forsmann 0-0, 0-0, 0; Alfrey 0-0, 0-0, 0. 3-pointers-Schumacher 3, Hasselstrom.
Kamiah-Keen 0-0, 0-0, 0; Krogh 4-10, 1-3, 12; Cox 1-10, 0-0, 2; Mercer 1-8, 0-0, 3; Sams 5-16, 1-2, 11; Skinner 0-4, 2-2, 2; DeGroot 1-2, 0-0, 2; Wheeler 0-0, 0-0, 0; Wilkins 0-0, 0-0, 0; Whitney 0-0, 0-0, 0; Norman 0-1, 0-0, 0; Brotnov 1-1, 0-0, 2. 3-pointers-Krogh 3, Mercer.