| Pirates
clinch league title
The Prairie Pirates clinched their second straight league championship and their fourth in the last 6 years with a 61-46 win at Lapwai Thursday, Feb. 5. They then closed in on a perfect league season with a 78-17 win over Clearwater Valley at Cottonwood Saturday, Feb. 7. Their only remaining league game is this Saturday, Feb. 14 at Potlatch. Their final home game and Senior Night is Wednesday, Feb. 11 against Moscow. Lapwai pulled to within 2 a couple of times in the third quarter but Prairie started to pull away late when they shut down Lapwai’s inside game forcing them to win the game from the outside. Also the Pirates slowed the game down to work the clock on the other end and converted the resulting free throws as Lapwai went to fouling to get the ball back. Prairie led 44-33 after 3 quarters and outscored Lapwai 17-13 in the fourth to win by 15. A Lapwai win would’ve only given Lapwai a chance at the #1 seed into District but they would have needed to win out and have Prairie lose at least 1 of their final 2 league games as Prairie has the tie-breaker in their favor. With the win and the tiebreaker, the #1 seed is locked up. Prairie will play the winners of the #4-#5 matchup at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 18 at the LCSC Activity Center. A win in that game clinches a state berth. Rhett Schlader led the Pirates in scoring with 26 points which included a 6 for 6 performance at the free throw line. Jake Bruner added 15 points while Lucas Arnzen scored 8. Terran Peery, back from a suspension, scored 8 points as well. Tanner Ross added 4 points. Prairie 12 14 18 17 -61 Lapwai 8 13 12 13 -46 Prairie-Schlader 9, 6-6, 26; Peery 2, 4-5, 8; Bry. Higgins 0, 0-0, 0; Bruner 6, 3-5, 15; Bra. Higgins 0, 0-0, 0; Ross 1, 2-4, 4; Schumacher 0, 0-0, 0; Arnzen 3, 2-5, 8; Hinkelman 0, 0-0, 0; Mager 0, 0-0, 0; Bruegeman 0, 0-0, 0. 3-pointers-Schlader 2. Lapwai-Peters 0, 0-0, 0; Kipp 0, 0-0, 0; Taylor 0, 0-0, 0; Mitchell 6, 1-2, 13; Wilson 0, 0-0, 0; Fernandez 1, 0-0, 2; T. Miles-Williams 3, 1-1, 7; Henry 1, 2-5, 4; Shawl 2, 1-2, 5; I. Miles-Williams 0, 0-0, 0; Miles 0, 0-0, 0; Lone Bear 6, 2-2, 15. 3-pointers-Lone Bear. 
Prairie jumped out to leads of 10-0, 15-2 and 28-4 in the first quarter as their pressure defense forced 14 turnovers, many of which were quickly turned into points. Prairie opened the scoring when Schlader made a lob pass to Bruner who was making a back cut against the Rams for an easy lay-up. Consecutive steals by Bryson Higgins then led to lay-ups by Bruner and Ross. A steal by Schlader led to him scoring a free throw and Schlader then capped the game-opening 10-0 run when he was fouled on a lay-up and converted the 3-point play. C.V. scored twice in the next 2 minutes but Prairie then ended the quarter with a 13-0 run and then scored the first 5 points of the second quarter to make it an 18-0 run overall. Arnzen scored 6 in the quarter ending 13-0 run as he twice completed 3-point plays. He wound up with 8 points in the quarter while Schlader scored 7 and Bruner and Ross 6 each. Bench players got the bulk of the playing time in the second quarter with Peery scoring 6 and Brandon Higgins 3 although the starts came back late in the period with Arnzen adding 4 more points for 12 in the first half. Prairie led 45-10 at the halftime break. Prairie started the third quarter with a 14-0 run to take a 59-10 lead and held C.V. to just 2 free throws in the quarter as they took a 63-12 lead into the fourth. It was all bench players in the fourth quarter, which was under a running clock. Peery added 6 more points while Calvin Hinkelman scored 5 as Prairie continued to build on their lead. Prairie had 5 players score in double figures led by Arnzen with 16. Ross and Peery scored 12 each with Bruner and Hinkelman adding 10 each. Schlader scored 9 while Brandon Higgins scored 5 and John Mager and Devin Bruegeman added 2 each. Rebounding was close as Prairie held just a 35-33 edge on the boards. Bruner led Prairie with 7 while Arnzen had 6. Bruner had 7 steals while Schlader had 5 and Arnzen and Peery had 4 each as Prairie forced C.V. into 35 turnovers. Bruner had 6 assists while Schlader had 3. Prairie was 31 for 64 from the field, 48%, and 15 for 23 at the line, 65%. C.V. was 4 for 32 from the field, 13%, and 9 for 12 at the line, 75%. Prairie is now 16-2 on the season and 11-0 in league play.  They
will open District play on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. against the winner
of the #4 vs. #5 game.
The JV team didn’t have any more trouble than the varsity as they rolled to a 78-25 win. The JV’s opened the game with an 11-0 run and led 18-3 and 26-5. Hunter Chaffee scored 12 points in the quarter, all on lay-ups or putbacks as Prairie forced 18 first quarter turnovers. The two Brandons, Higgins and Anderson, had 2 steals each in the quarter, all of which were turned into lay-ups. The onslaught continued in the second quarter as Prairie scored the first 8 to complete a 16-0 run. Prairie led 45-9 before easing off late in the half with C.V. scoring the half’s final 4 points to make it 45-13. The lead continued to build in the third quarter as Higgins opened the scoring with a 3-pointer to kick off a 9-0 run. Another 9-0 run later in the quarter built the lead to 50 at 66-16. It was still 50 at the end of the quarter at 70-20. It was mostly subs in the fourth quarter with all but 1 player scoring in the game. Chaffee wound up with 16 to lead the team with Higgins adding 11. Devin Bruegeman scored 9, Ryan Glimp 8, Tyson Schlader and Justin Schumacher 7 each, Anderson 6, Luke Wemhoff, Anthony Karel and Hunter Hasselstrom 4 each and Nick Mager 2. Noah Arnzen had several opportunities to score but couldn’t get the ball to go through the hoop. Prairie had a 38-21 rebounding advantage led by Bruegeman with 7 with Anderson adding 6. Schlader had 6 steals while Anderson had 4 and Higgins, Chaffee and Mager had 3 each as Prairie forced 35 turnovers. Higgins had 5 assists while Bruegeman and Schlader had 3 each. Prairie was 36 for 77 from the field, 47%, and 3 for 6 at the line, 50%. C.V. was 8 for 21 from the field, 38%, and 7 for 14 at the line, 50%. Prairie 28 17 18 15 -78 C.V. 4 6 2 5 -17 Prairie-Schlader 2-9, 5-8, 9; Bry. Higgins 0-0, 0-0, 0; Bruner 5-11, 0-0, 10; Ross 6-10, 0-0, 12; Arnzen 6-10, 4-4, 16; Peery 5-6, 1-1, 12; Hinkelman 4-7, 2-4, 10; Mager 1-3, 0-0, 2; Bra. Higgins 2-4, 1-3, 5; Schumacher 0-2, 0-0, 0; Bruegeman 0-2, 2-2, 2. 3-pointers-Peery. C.V.-Pfefferkorn 0-4, 0-0, 0; Palmer 0-8, 4-4, 4; M. Morrow 0-5, 0-0, 0; C. Morrow 0-0, 0-0, 0; Owens 2-5, 0-0, 4; Mangun 1-5, 5-8, 7; Olsen 1-3, 0-0, 2; Coons 0-0, 0-0, 0; Kolb 0-2, 0-0, 0. 3-pointers-none. Pirates, Patriots start District next week The boys district tournaments get underway next week at the LCSC Activity Center. Prairie will be the #1 seed in the 1-A, Div. 1 tournament and will play the 4 vs. 5 winner at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 18. With a win they clinch a state trip and advance to the title game Friday, Feb. 27 at 7:30 p.m. Summit will be the #1 seed into the Div. 2 tournament after beating Highland Wednesday. They willopen play on Thursday, Feb. 19 at 7 p.m. against the #4 vs. #5 winner. With a win they play again at 8:15 p.m. Feb. 25. A loss has them playing on Feb. 24 and needing 4 straight wins to advance to state, 3 at District plus a play-in game.
PIRATES BOYS BASKETBALL SCHEDULE FOR 2014-15 *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 JANUARY 6-Lapwai, here*, won 50-33 9-C.V., there*, won 78-36 15-Potlatch, here*, 5 p.m., won 76-13 20-Genesee, here*, won 60-33 23-Kamiah, there* won 62-26 27-Grangeville, here, won 57-40 28-Asotin, here, won 66-33 29-Troy, here*, won 56-25 FEBRUARY 5-Lapwai, there*, won 61-46 7-C.V., here*, won 78-17 11-Moscow, there, 5:30 p.m., won 79-64, details next week 14-Potlatch, there*, 1 p.m. 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. 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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