Lady Pirates earn state berth
The Prairie Lady Pirates were forced to play two extra games to get to the State Tournament after a heartbreaking loss to Lapwai, 55-57 in overtime, in the District Championship game Tuesday, Feb. 6 at the LCSC Activity Center.
They had to go right back to Lewiston the next night and fend off Genesee 43-29 to take second at District. 
That earned them a trip to Post Falls High School Saturday, Feb. 10 where they easily dispatched Wallace 57-14 to earn a trip to State.
Prairie will open State play this Thursday, Feb. 15 at 2 p.m. PST against District 3 champion Rimrock. 
District Championship game
Prairie was fighting from behind for the whole first half of the District Championship game against Lapwai as the Pirates struggled on offense.
Lapwai took a 4-11 lead midway through the first quarter. Leah Higgins then scored 5 straight points, 3 at the free throw line, to cut the deficit to 2 in the final minute of the quarter. Lapwai got a 3-pointer fromLapwai freshman Glory Sobotta to make it 9-14 at the quarter break.Jordyn Higgins gets fouled by Lapwai.
Prairie scored the first 5 points of the second quarter to tie the game at 14-14. Leah Higgins hit 2 more free throws, Jordyn Higgins added 1 free throw and India Peery tied the score when she scored after a steal.
Lapwai answered right back though with a 0-10 run to take a 14-24 lead. The Wildcats led by as many as 12 on 3 different occasions, the last at 19-31. At that point Josie Peery sank 3 of 4 free throws and Sydney Bruner scored inside to cut the deficit to 24-31 at the half.
Lapwai held the lead through much of the third quarter, leading 33-38 with 2:55 left. At that point Prairie got a rally going. Bruner connected on a midrange shot. A steal by India Peery led to a 3 by Jordyn Higgins to tie the score. Josie Peery converted a 3-point play to give Prairie their first lead of the game at the 1:33 mark, 41-38. Josie then stole the ball which led to a putback by Leah Higgins. Another steal by Josie led to her making 2 free throws to give Prairie a 45-38 lead.
Unfortunately the quarter ended and that gave Lapwai a bit of a breather and they came out and scored the first 6 points of the fourth to pull within 1.
Josie Peery scored inside to put Prairie back up by 3 and added a pair of free throws after a Lapwai score to again give Prairie a 3-point lead.
Lapwai tied it on a 3 by Hewekse Wisdom with 2:21 left.
Neither team scored again until the final seconds of regulation. An apparent foul against Josie Peery went uncalled late. She got a defensive rebound that led to a basket by India Peery that made it 51-49. When the clock stopped on the basket 2.9 seconds showed on the clock. It was reset to 4.1 seconds and those 1.2 seconds turned out to be huge.
Prairie had a couple fouls to give and coach Lori Mader said she wanted to foul Lapwai on the ensuing possession to help eat the final seconds and make them inbound the ball again. That didn’t happen but Bruner tipped the ball out of bounds with 1.0 seconds left. Without the clock reset the game would have been over. Lapwai inbounded to Sobotta and Bruner was called for her 5th foul on the desperation 3-point try.Sobotta made the first 2 free throws to tie it but missed the third and Prairie rebounded as the game went to overtime.
Shades of the 2002 state championship game when another Lapwai freshman scored at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.
India Peery scored to open the overtime but Lapwai answered with a 3-point play. Josie Peery tied it with a free throw but Lapwai answered with 2 free throws for a 2-point lead. 
Leah Higgins scored at the line to cut the lead to 55-56 but that was it for Prairie as Lapwai added a final free throw to win it.
Josie Peery scored 17 points to lead the Pirates and added 10 rebounds. Jordyn Higgins scored 12, Leah Higgins 11, India Peery 8 and Bruner 7.
Lapwai had a 41-44 edge at the line and it seemed most of Lapwai’s rebounds were on the offensive end. India and Josie Peery each had 10 rebounds with Bruner and Leah Higgins each adding 8.
India Peery had 6 steals and Leah Higgins had 4 assists.
Prairie was 17 for 48 from the field, 35%, and 20 for 30 at the line, 67%. Lapwai was 20 for 66 from the field, 30%, and 11 for 16 at the line, 69%.
Prairie    9 15 21   6 4 -55
Lapwai 14 17   7 13 6 -57
Prairie-J. Peery 4-9, 9-11, 17; J. Higgins 4-13, 3-7, 12; L. Higgins 2-7, 7-10, 11; Bruner 3-5, 1-1, 7; I. Peery 4-12, 0-1, 8; Wemhoff 0-1, 0-0, 0; Hiler 0-1, 0-0, 0. 3-pointers-J. Higgins.
Lapwai-Wisdom 2-7, 3-4, 8; A. Mitchell 7-14, 2-2, 17; Smith 0-6, 0-0, 0; O. Mitchell 0-5, 2-2, 2; Coversup 1-2, 0-0, 2; Gould 3-6, 1-1, 8; Oatman 1-1, 0-0, 2; Sobotta 3-11, 2-6, 9; Domebo 1-7, 1-1, 3; Reuben 2-7, 0-0, 6. 3-pointers-Reuben 2, Wisdom, A. Mitchell, Gould, Sobotta.
2nd place vs. Genesee
Josie Peery puts up a shot against Genesee. Also shown is Sydney Bruner.After the tough loss the night before Prairie had to come back and play a much fresher Genesee team who had cruised to a big win over Troy on Tuesday.
Prairie looked a step slow as they had trouble against Genesee’s press and committed 9 turnovers in the opening quarter.
Josie Peery wouldn’t let the Pirates lose though and scored 6 of Prairie’s 9 points in the opening quarter as they took a 9-6 lead.
The Prairie defense shut down the Bulldogs in the second quarter. The two teams traded baskets then Prairie went on a 10-0 run to take at 21-8 lead.
Josie Peery scored a la-up then Jordyn Higgins hit 3 of 4 free throws. Bruner sank 2 free throws, and Josie Peery hit 1 of 2 before Bruner scored from the baseline to cap the run.
Genesee got a pair of free throws late in the half to make it 21-10 at the break.
Genesee came out of the locker room strong in the third quarter with a 2-9 run to pull within 4 at 23-19.
Bruner scored on a hook shot in the lane for Prairie’s only points in that run.
Jordyn Higgins then ended the run with a 3-pointer from the corner on an inbounds play. 
Prairie took a 27-21 lead in to the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter saw Prairie salt the game away at the free throw line as they hit 10 of 12 at the stripe, 6 for 6 by Josie Peery. Meanwhile Genesee was jacking up shots without much success as they connected on just 4 of 20 in the quarter. 
Prairie scored the first 4 points of the fourth quarter on a basket each by Jordyn Higgins and Josie Peery and Genesee never got closer than 8 the rest of the way.
Josie Peery again led the scoring with 17 points with Jordyn Higgins adding 12. Bruner scored 6 with India Peery adding 5, Leah Higgins 2 and Theresa Wemhoff 1.
Leah Higgins and Josie Peery did a good job on Genesee’s normally high scoring senior duo of Courtney Burt and Anna Druffel. Burt scored just 6 points while Druffel had just 2. The player who kept Genesee in the game was sophomore point guard Emerson Parkins who was able to drive her way to the basket for 10 points.
Prairie had a 44-35 rebounding advantage with Josie Peery grabbing 16 rebounds and Bruner 10.
Jordyn Higgins had 4 steals and 3 assists while Leah Higgins had 4 assists.
Prairie was 11 for 36 from the field, 31%, and 20 for 30 at the line, 67%. Genesee was 11 for 53 from the field, 21%, and 7 for 12 at the line, 58%.
Prairie    9 12   6 16 -43
Genesee 6   4 11   8 -29
Prairie-J. Peery 5-10, 7-10, 17; J. Higgins 3-12, 5-6, 12; L. Higgins 0-5, 2-4, 2; Bruner 2-4, 2-2, 6; I. Peery 1-6, 3-6, 5; Wemhoff 0-1, 1-2, 1; Hiler 0-0, 0-0, 0; Krogh 0-0, 0-0, 0; Ross 0-0, 0-0, 0; Tidwell 0-0, 0-0, 0. 3-pointers-J. Higgins.
Genesee-Parkins 5-13, 0-2, 10; Zenner 1-2, 1-2, 3; Druffel 1-11, 0-0, 2; Burt 2-13, 2-3, 6; Jensen 1-4, 4-4, 6; Flodin 0-3, 0-0, 0; Leseman 0-2, 0-0, 0; Monk 0-0, 0-0, 0; Hanson 1-3, 0-1, 2; Fountain 0-0, 0-0, 0; Murray 0-1, 0-0, 0. 3-pointers-none.
Play-In vs. Wallace
On Saturday at Post Falls High School, Prairie started the game 14-0 and left little doubt who was going to win.Leah Higgins scores a transition lay-up against Wallace.
The win sends them to State for the 8th consecutive year, the first time in their history they have gone 8 straight years. Twice before they went 7 years in a row, 1976-82 under Art Dorval and Don Hoffman and 1986-92 under Chris Wren. It also breaks the tie coach Lori Mader had with Wren for most state appearances as a head coach for Prairie.
As stated earlier, Prairie jumped out to a 14-0 lead with Wallace scoring a free throw at the 2:20 mark. Prairie then scored 3 more to make it 17-1 after 1 quarter. That started another 14-0 run as they led 28-1 before Wallace scored their first basket of the game with 28 seconds left in the half.
Josie Peery sank 1 of 2 free throws to make it 29-3 at the break.
Prairie forced 15 first half turnovers from the Miners, who came into the game with a 5-13 record.
And it wasn’t as if the Miners couldn’t get into their offense due to the turnovers, they managed to take 22 shots in the first half but sank just 1.
The onslaught continued in the third quarter as Prairie outscored the Miners 20-4 to take a 49-7 lead into the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter saw a lot of subs in the game for Prairie and to the surprise of many, it was not played under a running clock. Apparently there is no running clock in state tournament games and this game was counted as a state tournament game. 
Wallace was able to double their score but Prairie till outscored them 8-7.
Josie Peery was the Pirates leading scorer for the third straight game, outscoring Wallace with 15 points She also had 15 rebounds for another double-double. Bruner scored 8, Jordyn and Leah Higgins and India Peery 7 each, Wemhoff 4, Hiler 3 and Sarah Ross, Kristyna Krogh and Kodie Tidwell 2 each.
Prairie outrebounded Wallace 44-36. Leah Higgins added 8 boards and Ciara Chaffee had 6.
Josie Peery had 4 steals while Wemhoff and India Peery had 3 each. Jordyn Higgins and India Peery each had 4 assists.
Prairie was 22 for 57 from the field, 39%, and 11 for 21 at the line, 52%. Wallace was 5 for 41 from the field, 12%, and 3 for 8 from the line, 38%.
Prairie takes a 22-2 record into the state tournament.
Prairie 17 12 20 8 -57
Wallace 1   2  4 7 -14
Prairie-J. Peery 6-13, 3-5, 15; J. Higgins 2-5, 2-4, 7; L. Higgins 3-10, 1-2, 7; Bruner 4-6, 0-0, 8; I. Peery 3-9, 0-1, 7; Hiler 0-0, 3-5, 3; Ross 1-3, 0-0, 2; Krogh 1-2, 0-2, 2; Wemhoff 1-3, 2-2, 4; Chaffee 0-3, 0-0, 0; Tidwell 1-1, 0-1, 2; Duclos 0-1, 0-0, 0. 3-pointers-J. Higgins, I. Peery.
Wallace-Oertli 1-6, 1-2, 4; Krous 2-9, 1-2, 5; Hayman 2-5, 1-2, 5; Sheppard 0-5, 0-0, 0; Howard 0-7, 0-0, 0; Hill 0-2, 0-0, 0; Morin 0-4, 0-0, 0; Bayer 0-2, 0-0, 0; Corey 0-1, 0-2, 0; Johnson 0-0, 0-0, 0. 3-pointers-Oertli.

Sydney Bruner looks to shoot against Lapwai.

Josie Peery scores a lay-up against Wallace.

India Peery is about to make a pass to Sydney Bruner in the Lapwai game.

Sydney Bruner heads for the hoop after making a steal against Genesee. Also shown is Alexis Hiler.

The State Tournament bracket. All times listed are Mountain Time.
PIRATES GIRLS BASKETBALL SCHEDULE FOR 2017-2018
JV games start at 6 p.m., varsity to follow unless indicated. 
*indicates league game
NOVEMBER
14-Lewiston J.V., here, won 53-22
16-Genesee, here*, won 72-48
21-Grangeville, there, won 57-17
28-C.V., there, won 80-9
30-Lewiston J.V., there, won 53-28
DECEMBER
  1-Potlatch, here*, won 70-10
  7-Kamiah, there, won 61-16
  9-Troy Quad, here, 1 & 2:30*, won 50-22
12-Lapwai, there*, won 58-42
15-Grangeville, here, Idaho County Shootout, V only, 6:00 p.m., won 34-30
19-Asotin, Quad, there, 4:30, won 64-23
JANUARY
  5-Genesee, there*, won 71-21
  9-Moscow, here (C,JV,V) 4 p.m., lost 46-51
11-C.V., here*, won 85-7
13-Potlatch, there*, won 65-22
16-Kamiah, here*, won 63-9
20-Troy Quad, there*, 1 & 2:30, won 59-17
25-Lapwai, here*, won 43-36
26-Moscow, there, (C,JV,V) 4 p.m., won 51-40
29-Asotin, Quad, here, 3:15 & 6, rescheduled from Jan. 2, won 62-15
Jan. 30-Feb. 7 -District at LCSC--beat Potlatch 54-16. Lost to Lapwai 55-57 in overtime, beat Genesee 43-29 for second place.
10-State Play-In at Post Falls High School, 1:00 p.m. vs. Wallace, won 57-14.
15-17-State at Nampa, vs. Rimrock at 2 p.m. PST Thursday, Feb. 15 at Columbia High School in Nampa.
Cottonwood, Idaho 83522
 

Home

Classified Ads
 

COTTONWOOD
CHRONICLE
503 King St.
P.O. Box 157
Cottonwood, ID 83522-0157
editor@cottonwoodchronicle.com
or cotchron@qwestoffice.net
208-962-3851
Fax 208-962-7131
Template Design by: