Pirates edged by Grangeville
The Prairie boys basketball team opened their season with a 38-40 loss to Grangeville in the Idaho County Shootout at Cottonwood Friday, Dec. 6.
Both teams came out struggling with their shooting. Prairie took a 2-0 lead on 2 free throws by Riley Shears at the 7:24 mark. Grangeville finally got on the scoreboard at the 4:03 mark with a free throw.
Briggs Rambo scored the first basket of the game at the 3:17 mark and was fouled, converting a 3-point play for a 5-1 lead. Levi Gehring added a free throw at the 58 seconds mark to make it 6-1.
Grangeville finally scored their first basket of the game at the first quarter buzzer to make it 6-3. Prairie had hit just 1 of 15 shots in the quarter while Grangeville was 1 for 12.
Phil Schwartz opened the second quarter scoring with a 3-pointer to make it 9-3. Grangeville then scored the next 8 points to take their first lead of the game.
Rambo tied it with a basket at the 4:02 mark and Matt Wemhoff scored to put Prairie ahead 13-11 at the 2:44 mark. Grangeville then closed the first half with 4 straight points, all free throws, for a 13-15 lead at the half.
Prairie dominated the third quarter, going on a 15-2 run to start the period. Wemhoff opened the second half with a 3 to put Prairie back on top. Rambo then converted another 3-point play. Schwartz hit a bank shot to make it 21-15.
Grangeville scored a basket then Schwartz hit a 3 and Shears scored on an inbounds play. Gehring stole the ball and scored to make it 28-17.
After Grangeville broke a 3 minute scoring drought, Rambo made 2 free throws and then added a putback to make it 32-19 with 1:42 left in the third quarter.
Grangeville scored 5 straight, including a 3, to pull within 8 but Logan Weber scored a putback to make it 34-24 at the end of the third quarter.
Grangeville turned things completely around in the fourth quarter as they scored 13 straight points. Tate Thacker did most of the damage as he connected on 3 straight 3-pointers. His 3 with 4:42 left gave Grangeville their first lead since the start of the third quarter. During that stretch Rambo fouled out.
Weber finally broke Prairie’s scoring drought with 2:40 to play to cut the deficit to 1. However he fouled out soon after.
Grangeville scored a basket and a free throw to got up 36-40 with 1:34 to play.
With 1:05 left Wemhoff scored after a steal to cut the lead to 2.
Prairie had opportunities in the final minute as they were able to keep Grangeville from scoring. In the final seconds Prairie called a timeout and set up a play for Nate Forsmann to try and tie it to send the game to overtime. His shot missed however and Grangeville held on to win.
Rambo scored 12 to lead the Pirates in scoring. Schwartz scored 8, Wemhoff 7, Shears and Weber 4 each and Gehring 3.
Prairie had a 56-43 advantage on the boards led by Weber and Forsmann who had 10 each with Shears adding 9 rebounds.
Wemhoff had 5 steals while Schwartz had 4 steals and 3 assists.
Prairie was 14 for 73 from the field, 19%, It wasn’t like they were throwing up wild shots either. They had a lot of open looks that just wouldn’t fall. They were 7 for 14 at the line, 50%. Grangeville was 14 for 41 from the field, 43%, and 7 for 20 at the line.
There was a big disparity in fouls as Prairie was whistled for 27 while Grangeville was called for 18.
The game turned on the 4 minute stretch to open the fourth quarter when Grangeville hit 6 of 7 shots, including 3 of 3 from 3-point range, and Prairie was 0 for 8.
Prairie is now 0-1 on the season.
Prairie        6  7 21   4 -38
Grangeville 3 12  9 16 -40
Prairie-Wemhoff 3-8, 0-0, 7; Weber 2-6, 0-0, 4; Shears 1-14, 2-4, 4; Schwartz 3-22, 0-0, 8; Rambo 4-9, 4-4, 12; Forsmann 0-6, 0-4, 0; Gehring 1-5, 1-2, 3; VonBargen 0-2, 0-0, 0; Secrest 0-2, 0-0, 0. 3-pointers-Schwartz 2, Wemhoff.
Grangeville-Astle 1-3, 3-34, 5; Schumacher 3-8, 0-0, 7; Thacker 7-14, 1-2, 18; Long 2-10, 0-2, 5; Smith 1-1, 1-4, 3; Told 0-3, 2-4, 2; Stamper 0-1, 0-4, 0; Chahal 0-1, 0-0, 0. 3-pointers-Thacker 4, Schumacher.