| Pirates
come from behind to beat Lapwai
The Prairie Pirates erased a 9-point halftime deficit to beat Lapwai 68-63 at Cottonwood Thursday, January 25. The Pirates survived a first half 3-point barrage by the Wildcats’ Jordan Wheeler who connected on 5 of 8 long distance attempts. For whatever reason, the Lapwai coach kept Wheeler on the bench nearly the entire third quarter despite his first-half outburst. 
Lapwai jumped out to a 5-12 lead in the first quarter but 2 baskets by J.D. Riener, a 3-pointer by David Sigler and a short jumper by Nate Kaschmitter pulled Prairie within 14-15 at the end of the period. Wheeler canned 3 straight 3-pointers in the second period as Lapwai took a 15-24 lead. Ryan Daly converted a 3-point play and Riener added a putback to cut the lead back to just 3 at 21-24. Lapwai pushed the lead back to 7 on a pair of baskets but Prairie answered with a basket each from Tyler Forsmann and Sigler to again pull within 3. Lapwai pushed the halftime lead to 9 with a 3-point play and a buzzer-beating 3-point shot to make it 25-34. The Wildcats pushed the lead to 13 with a pair of free throws and a basket as they held Prairie scoreless the first 3 minutes of the third period. Ryan Daly got Prairie on the board with a 3 pointer and Corey Schaeffer then stole the ball twice and drove downcourt for lay-ups. After another Lapwai turnover, Schaeffer added another basket to pull the Pirates within 4 points at 34-38. Lapwai was able to push the lead back to 9 points at 46-45 with 1:56 left in the third quarter but Prairie pulled back within 4 on a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer by Sigler and a pair of free throws by Riener that made it 43-47. A free throw by Schaeffer cut the lead to 3 but Lapwai answered with a basket. Lapwai then went scoreless for just over 4 minutes as Prairie scored 14 straight points. Sigler started the run with a free throw and then added a lay-up after a steal by Daly. Another Lapwai turnover led to Prairie’s first lead of the game as Sigler canned a 3-pointer.  Prairie
then got a big chance to extend their lead as Kaschmitter was fouled and
another Lapwai player was called for a technical after the play. Kaschmitter
couldn’t make his free throws but Sigler made both the technical shots.
Kaschmitter then made up for his misses at the line by draining a 3-pointer
from about 24 feet out.
After another Lapwai turnover, Sigler hit his own long distance bomb to give Prairie a 58-49 lead with 3:37 to play. In the final 3 minutes Lapwai was able to close the gap by crashing the offensive boards for second chance baskets. Prairie was able to hold them off though by making their free throws. Prairie made 8 of 12 free throws in the final 2:53 with Sigler and Forsmann each hitting 4 of 4. Sigler scored a short jumper in the lane with 45 seconds left to give Prairie a 66-60 lead but Lapwai answered with a 3-pointer to cut the lead in half. Lapwai had a chance to tie it but a 3-point attempt missed and Sigler made a great athletic play to save the long rebound from going out of bounds near midcourt. He was able to toss the ball back to Daly who brought the ball upcourt. Forsmann wound up getting fouled and with 7 seconds left hit both free throws for a 68-63 lead. Sigler wound up leading the Pirates with 27 points, 17 of those in the fourth quarter. Riener scored 12, Kaschmitter and Forsmann 8 each, Schaeffer 7 and Daly 6. Lapwai held the rebounding edge at 38-41 with Riener leading the Pirates with 14. Forsmann and Sigler added 8 rebounds each. Sigler had 4 steals and 3 assists while Schaeffer had 2 steals and 5 assists. Prairie was 22 for 52 from the field, including a 5 for 6 fourth quarter, for 42% and 17 for 25 at the line. Lapwai was 22 for 64 from the field, 34%, and 11 for 15 at the line. Both teams were perfect from the line through the first 3 quarters with Prairie at 5 for 5 and Lapwai at 6 for 6. In the JV game Prairie had a 24-2 run that started late in the third quarter to turn a 1-point deficit into a 21-point lead as they beat the Wildcats 73-55 to avenge an earlier loss. The first game went back and forth as the teams wound up tied at 13. Kyle Holthaus scored 6, Conner Rieman 4 and Derek Schaeffer 3 for the JV’s in the first. In the second quarter Lapwai put in a whole new lineup and they came out hot hitting 8 of their first 10 shots including three 3-pointers as the Wildcats led by as many as 9 points and led 30-38 at the half. Prairie opened the third quarter with a 14-2 run to retake the lead as Holthaus hit a pair of 3-pointers. Lapwai answered back with a basket and 3-pointer to retake the lead and led 46-47 with 2:02 left in the quarter. Czech Republic exchange student Vit Spanhel then hit a pair of open shots to give Prairie the lead and Branden Waller closed the quarter with a driving lay-up for a 52-47 lead. Andrew Gabica opened the fourth quarter scoring with a 3-pointer which was followed by a driving lay-up by Eric Daly, a rare 3-pointer by Waller, a basket by Riener and another basket by Waller that put Prairie up 64-47. Lapwai finally scored again to end a 6 minute drought but Waller then scored 2 free throws and a pair of baskets to make it 70-49 with 1:51 to play. A basket by Daniel Sigler and a free throw by Joe Schumacher closed out the Pirates scoring. Waller wound up with 24 points to lead the JV’s despite having to sit out the opening quarter. Holthaus added 21 points which included three 3-pointers. Rieman scored 8, Daly 6, Spanhel 4, Schaeffer and Gabica 3 each and Sigler and Schumacher 2 each. Prairie had a 44-42 rebounding edge with Waller pulling down 16 rebounds to lead the team. Rieman and Gabica added 6 rebounds each. Rieman had 5 steals, Holthaus 4 and Waller 3. Prairie forced the Wildcats into 31 turnovers while committing 22. Daly and Holthaus had 4 assists each and Rieman had 3. Prairie was 30 for 64 from the field, 47%, and 8 for 26 at the line. Lapwai was 25 for 60 from the field, 42%, and 0 for 5 from the line. Prairie 14 11 18 25 -68 Lapwai 15 19 13 16 -63 Prairie-Forsmann 2-8, 4-4, 8; Schaeffer 3-8, 1-2, 7; Sigler 7-15, 9-10, 27; R. Daly 2-6, 1-3, 6; Riener 5-10, 2-2, 12; Kaschmitter 3-5, 0-4, 8; K. Daly 0-0, 0-0, 0. 3-pointers-Sigler 4, Kaschmitter 2, R. Daly. Lapwai-Bybee 0-9, 0-0, 0; Church 7-11, 7-8, 21; Wilson 2-9, 1-1, 5; Keller 1-3, 0-0, 3; Hernandez 1-8, 0-0, 2; Wheeler 6-14, 0-0, 17; Brunelle 2-8, 0-0, 4; Slickpoo 3-4, 3-6, 11. 3-pointers-Wheeler 5, Slickpoo 2, Keller. Pirates shake off slow start to beat Highland The Prairie Pirates shook off a cold start and dominated the Highland Huskies in the fourth quarter for a 50-38 win at Cottonwood Saturday, January 27. The Pirates hit just 1 of 16 shots from the field in the first quarter, a putback by J.D. Riener being the only basket, as Highland took a 2-11 lead into the second period. Highland scored the first basket of the second quarter for a 2-13 lead, then Prairie finally started to put some offense together. 
David Sigler scored a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 6 and after a Highland free throw, Riener converted a 3-point play to pull the Pirates within 4 at 10-14. Highland then put together a rally to push the lead back to 8 at 12-20 with 2:36 left in the half. A pair of free throws by Sigler and a basket by Corey Schaeffer cut the lead in half, and after a Highland free throw, Schaeffer scored a pair of free throws and then a basket to pull Prairie within 1 at 20-21 with 36 seconds left. Highland added a basket to make it 20-23 at the half. In the third quarter Riener scored Prairie’s first 5 points and his putback with 3:47 left tied the score at 25. Highland used a basket and 4 free throws, 2 on a technical foul, to retake the lead at 27-31 but from there Prairie took over. Tyler Forsmann scored a putback with 1:42 left and Riener scored a putback with 1:22 left after a Highland turnover that tied the score at 31. Sigler then gave Prairie their first lead of the game at 33-31 with a lay-up on a feed from Ryan Daly with 44 seconds left in the quarter. Sigler started the fourth quarter scoring with a driving lay-up and made it a 3-point play as he was fouled for a 36-31 lead. Neither team scored for nearly 3 minutes with Riener breaking the dry spell with a putback. Highland then scored a basket and a free throw to pull within 4 but Prairie then put together an 8-0 run with all 8 points coming from Sigler. He scored 3 times on driving lay-ups. His fourth straight basket came after he made a great hustling play to save a long rebound on a Highland miss from going out of bounds near halfcourt. He was able to flip the ball back to Schaeffer as he went out. That led to a short jumper to make it 46-34. Highland answered with a pair of baskets but a 3-point play by Sigler with 31 seconds left closed out the scoring. Sigler wound up with 23 points with 14 of those coming in the fourth quarter. Riener had a big-time double-double with 14 points and 20 rebounds. 10 of his 14 points came on offensive rebounds. Schaeffer scored 8 and Forsmann scored 4. Prairie had a 52-37 rebounding edge. In addition to Riener’s 20 rebounds, Schaeffer had 11, Forsmann 7 and Sigler 6. Schaeffer had 3 steals and Nate Kaschmitter and Ryan Daly had 2 assists each. Prairie was 19 for 74 from the field, 26%, and 10 for 18 at the line while Highland was 13 for 38 from the field, 34%, and 11 for 20 at the line. With the win Prairie improves to 4-2 in league play and 11-5 overall. In the JV game Prairie ran up a 24-1 lead after the first quarter and steadily built their advantage as they won 68-28. Prairie took a 6-0 lead and after a Highland free throw, scored 20 straight points for a 26-1 lead early in the second quarter. Eric Daly had 7 in the first quarter and Branden Waller had 6. After taking that 26-1 lead in the second, Highland put together a 0-6 run to make it 26-7 but then Prairie outscored them 9-1 the rest of the half for a 35-8 halftime lead. Waller had 5 more in the second quarter while Daniel Sigler scored 4. Prairie continued to dominate in the third quarter with Conner Rieman scoring 6 as Prairie outscored Highland 17-6 to take a 52-14 lead into the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter Kyle Holthaus and Waller scored 4 each as Prairie outscored the Huskies 16-14 for the final 40-point margin. Waller scored 15 to lead the JV’s with Rieman scoring 13, Daly 9, Holthaus and Sigler 8 each, Joe Schumacher 5, Vit Spanhel and Ben Forsmann 4 each and Derek Schaeffer 2. Prairie dominated the boards 54-35 with Rieman pulling down 12 rebounds to lead the team. Schumacher added 7 rebounds. Holthaus had 6 steals while Schaeffer and Daly had 4 each. Andrew Gabica had 4 assists while Holthaus and Schumacher had 3 each. Prairie was 30 for 74 from the field, 40%, and 8 for 13 at the line. Highland was 11 for 50 from the field, 22%, and 4 for 7 at the line. The JV’s record is now 11-4 on the season. Prairie 2 18 13 17 -50 Highland 11 12 8 7 -38 Prairie-Forsmann 2-9, 0-1, 4; Schaeffer 3-15, 2-2, 8; Sigler 8-22, 6-6, 23; R. Daly 0-4, 0-2, 0; Riener 6-18, 2-5, 14; Kaschmitter 0-4, 0-0, 0; K. Daly 0-0, 0-0, 0; Waller 0-1, 0-2, 0. 3-pointers-Sigler. Highland-Coursey 1-4, 3-8, 5; Stigum 3-13, 4-6, 10; Thomason 1-3, 0-0, 2; Pentzer 3-4, 2-2, 8; Heath 4-13, 3-4, 11; Pratt 1-1, 0-0, 2; Hill 0-0, 0-0, 0. 3-pointers-none. JV's win twice at CV Tournament The Prairie boys JV basketball team won a pair of games at the CVHS JV Tournament Saturday, January 20 at Kooskia. In their opening game they raced out to a 19-2 lead after one quarter and held on to defeat Clearwater Valley 44-39. Prairie led 29-13 at the half and then saw C.V. chip away at the lead in the second as it was 37-25 after 3 quarters. Branden Waller scored 9 of his game high 20 points in the opening quarter. Kyle Holthaus added 11 points while Conner Rieman scored 7 and Derek Schaeffer and Andrew Gabica added 3 points each. In the game Prairie was 18 for 44 from the field, 41%, and 8 for 22 at the line. In their second game they blew out Kendrick 62-42. Prairie led just 15-12 after one quarter but upped the lead to 32-23 by halftime and 45-32 after 3 quarters. Prairie had a 3-pronged scoring attack in the game as Holthaus led the scoring with 15 points while Rieman and Waller scored 14 each. Gabica added 9 points while Daniel Sigler scored 5, Chris Schmidt and Vit Spanhel 2 each and Joe Schumacher 1. Prairie was 22 for 54 from the field, 41%, and 19 of 41 at the line. Game 1 Prairie JV 19 10 8 7 -44 C.V. JV 2 11 11 15 -39 Game 2 Kendrick JV 12 11 9 10 -42 Prairie JV 15 17 13 17 -62 Prairie Pee Wee Basketball Signups The Prairie coaches, Jerry Uhling, Kevin Chaffee and Steve Wilson, along with Dave Snodgrass, Ryan Hasselstrom and Travis Mader are offering the Prairie Peewee basketball program again this year. This is an opportunity for our area youth grades 2 – 4 to learn fundaments in a low-key atmosphere. The clinics will be held Feb 10 & 17. The games will be held Feb 24, March 3, 10 and 27. Cost is $20 to participate or $30, which would include a Pee Wee Pirate tee shirt. If you are interested and need a sign up form contact Denise Uhlenkott at the Cottonwood School District, 962-3971. Registration deadline is February 5, 2007. PIRATES BOYS BASKETBALL SCHEDULE FOR 2006-07 JV games start at 6 p.m., varsity to follow unless indicated *indicates league game FEBRUARY 8-Culdesac, here* 12-Troy, here* 15,17,19,23,24,25-District at LCSC |
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