| Pirates
beat Wallace by 22
The Prairie Pirates stayed alive in the District Tournament with a 67-45 win over Wallace Monday, Feb. 23 at Lewiston. 
With the win they were to play Grangeville Tuesday, Feb. 24 with the winner of that game to play the loser of Thursday’s Lapwai-Potlatch game on Saturday at 7 p.m. for second place and a trip to State. Coach Jerry Uhling tried starting a smaller lineup and Wallace jumped out to an early 4-7 advantage in the game as they killed the Pirates on the boards. Uhling put Chad Arnzen, Jake Chaffee and Jacob Riener in the game and Prairie took over on the boards and ended the quarter with a 15-2 run. Arnzen and Riener each had a pair of baskets in the run and Chaffee had a pair of free throws while Matt Baerlocher got the run started with a long 3-pointer and 2 free throws. Wallace cut the lead quickly in half to start the second quarter but Prairie answered with an 11-0 run that included a pair of 3-pointers by Baerlocher. The Pirates built their lead to 21 by halftime at 40-19. The second half was played almost dead even as Prairie took control of the boards and got several putbacks while Wallace scored mainly in transition. Wallace struggled against the Prairie defense in their set offense committing 28 turnovers in the game.  Prairie
committed their own share of turnovers with 20, which led to many of those
transition baskets by Wallace, but just 8 of those were in the first half
when the Pirates were building their lead.
Baerlocher wound up as the Pirates leading scorer with 21 points. Arnzen hit his first 6 shot attempts and wound up with 14 points with Riener scoring 10, Chaffee 8, Mat Forsmann 5 in his first ever varsity start, Tyler Crane and Shane Doyle 4 each and Brent Frei 2. After getting outrebounded 1-7 in the first 4 minutes of play, Prairie wound up with a 46-32 rebounding advantage as Arnzen had 13 rebounds and Riener had 11. Baerlocher and Chaffee had 4 steals each and Baerlocher had 6 assists. Prairie hit 27 of 71 shot attempts, 38%, and 10 of 15 free throws while Wallace was 20 for 51 from the field, 39%, and 2 for 2 at the line. Prairie was whistled for just 8 fouls in the game. With the win the Pirates improve to 18-5 on the season. Prairie 19 21 10 17 -67 Wallace 9 10 12 14 -45 Prairie-T. Crane 2-7, 0-0, 4; Frei 1-1, 0-0, 2; Forsmann 2-10, 0-0, 5; Baerlocher 7-15, 4-5, 21; Doyle 1-7, 2-2, 4; Chaffee 2-5, 4-4, 8; Riener 5-13, 0-2, 10; Arnzen 7-10, 0-2, 14; Nuxoll 0-3, 0-0, 0; S. Crane 0-1, 0-0, 0. 3-pointers-Baerlocher 3, Forsmann. Wallace-P. Norris 3-9, 0-0, 6; Keener 4-7, 0-0, 8; Lee 6-15, 0-0, 15; S. Norris 4-6, 0-0, 8; Shiner 2-4, 2-2, 6; Heiser 0-1, 0-0, 0; Achord 1-3, 0-0, 2; Wick 0-3, 0-0, 0; Septer 0-2, 0-0, 0; Kilbourne 0-0, 0-0, 0. 3-pointers-Lee 3. Potlatch wins big over Prairie The Prairie Pirates were outplayed in about every phase of the game by Potlatch as the Loggers beat the Pirates 47-65 in District action at Lewiston Thursday, Feb. 19. The Loggers outshot the Pirates 43% to 33%, outrebounded the Pirates 26-39, had 4 fewer turnovers and outscored the Pirates 11-15 at the free throw line. The Loggers switched between a tight man-to-man and an extended matchup zone to keep the Pirates’ offense off-balance. 
Potlatch jumped out to a 0-6 lead in the game as Prairie went scoreless until the 3:57 mark when Brent Frei put back a miss by Tyler Crane. That was only Prairie’s third shot attempt of the game as the Pirates were unable to solve Potlatch’s defense. Crane then cut the lead to just 1 with a 3-pointer but Potlatch ended the quarter with a 5-9 lead after Cody Morgan scored a 3-point play. Prairie again pulled within 1 early in the second quarter after a coast-to-coast lay-up by Matt Baerlocher and another putback by Frei. Potlatch then got a rare 4-point play when Taylor Smith was fouled on a 3-pointer. Prairie again trimmed the lead, this time to 2 at 14-16 when Baerlocher could only make the third attempt of 3 free throws after getting fouled on a 3-point attempt. Potlatch pushed the lead back to 6 by halftime thanks to 3 baskets by Morgan. The Loggers pretty much put the game away with a 2-10 run to start the second half that gave them an 18-32 lead with 4:39 left in the third quarter. They led 27-39 entering the fourth quarter and then had a 0-8 run to start the fourth with half the points coming at the line. Prairie, now trailing by 20, resorted to fouling and 3-point tries but could get no closer than 17 the rest of the way. Crane hit 3 of 5 fourth quarter 3-point tries, and hit a pair from at least 25 feet out. He wound up as Prairie’s leading scorer with 19 points with Baerlocher scoring 16. Chad Arnzen and Frei scored 4 each with Jake Chaffee and Jacob Riener scoring 2 each. Prairie hit 15 of 45 shots in the game including 6 of 22 from 3-point range and 11 of 18 free throws while Potlatch was 23 for 53 from the field and 15 for 21 at the line. Arnzen had 6 rebounds to lead Prairie with Baerlocher grabbing 5. Baerlocher had 2 steals and 5 assists. Morgan led Potlatch with 19 points with Brandon Moore adding 18. Prairie 5 11 11 20 -47 Potlatch 9 13 17 26 -65 Prairie-T. Crane 5-15, 4-4, 19; Chaffee 1-1, 0-0, 2; Baerlocher 4-12, 7-10, 16; Doyle 0-5, 0-0, 0; Arnzen 2-5, 0-0, 4; Frei 2-5, 0-0, 4; Riener 1-3, 0-0, 2; Forsmann 0-2, 0-1, 0; S. Crane 0-0, 0-2, 0. 3-pointers-T. Crane 5, Baerlocher. Potlatch-Griswold 3-5, 1-2, 8; Larson 2-5, 5-6, 9; Morgan 9-16, 1-2, 19; Moore 7-12, 4-6, 18; Murray 2-8, 3-4, 7; Smith 1-3, 1-1, 4; Pollock 0-1, 0-0, 0; Kreid 0-1, 0-0, 0; Renz 0-1, 0-0, 0. 3-pointers-Smith, Griswold. Winter Sports Schedules March 4, 5, 6 State Tournament at Boise's Capitol High School |
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