PRAIRIE GROVE — The Tigers used a swarming full-court press to jump all over the visiting Gentry Pioneers and pick up their third conference win of the boys' basketball season on Friday.

Gentry (4-13, 0-9), had trouble in-bounding the ball against Prairie Grove (5-15, 3-9) and the Tigers built a 28-6 lead after the first quarter.

Jacob Storlie converted a 3-point play with a bucket in the paint and free throw to open the scoring.

Prairie Grove then scored 7 points in 20 seconds starting with J.D. Speed’s jumper with 6:15 remaining in the first. Ten seconds later, Storlie put in an athletic over the shoulder reverse lay-in off a steal and added another 3-point play when Ty Tice stole another Pioneer in-bounds pass and spun around to pass the ball back while hanging in the air as momentum carried him out of bounds.

Cooper Winters scored the next 3 Prairie Grove points to cap off a 14-0 Tiger run.

Brent Barker finally got Gentry on the scoreboard with a layup off a steal midway through the period, but Prairie Grove didn’t let up on the throttle and outscored Gentry 16-4 the rest of the way to build a 22-point lead going into the second period.

"We’ve been struggling offensively and we wanted to create good opportunities for our offense through defense," said Tigers’ coach Steve Edmiston. "This was one of the better halves we’ve played this year."

In the third quarter, Gentry matched Prairie Grove’s output with 17 points. After the Tigers upped their advantage to 56-21 with Cooper Winters rebounded and threw a touchdown pass to Jacob Storlie racing down-court, Gentry gradually reduced the deficit.

Dusty Haag, a 6-foot junior forward, went to work in the low post scoring 6 points. Prairie Grove got points from Leighton Smith, who slid along the baseline and received a pass resulting in a layup and Jon Halbert scored on a lead pass. Blake Boyd then knocked down a trio of 3-point shots for Gentry to trim the lead to 64-36 after three quarters.

“Blake Boyd is one of our sophomores, who has been showing us lately in practice and JV games that he can shoot the ball real well,” said Gentry coach Sean Price. “Tonight we put him in the starting lineup to give him a chance to show what he could do. He came out a lot more relaxed in the second half.”

Gentry worked an outside-inside play to start the fourth with Boyd executing a bounce pass to Haag, who drew a foul and made both charity shots. By the end of the game, Gentry had whittled lead down to 20 with Prairie Grove winning, 65-45.

PRAIRIE GROVE 65 GENTRY 45 Gentry 6 13 17 9 - 45 Prairie Grove 28 19 17 1 - 65 Gentry (4-13, 0-9): Dusty Haag 7 3-4 17, Blake Boyd 3 1-2 10, Brent Barker 3 0-0 6, Dustin Stoufflet 2 0-2 5, Robbie Massie 0 3-4 3, McArdell 1 0-0 2, Ryan Hockenberry 0 2-2 2, Alex Ellis 0 0-2 0. Totals 16 9-16 45.

Prairie Grove (5-15, 3-9): Ty Tice 8 0-1 19, Jacob Storlie 6 2-2 14, Leighton Smith 5 0-0 11, J.D. Speed 2 0-0 6, Cooper Winters 2 2-3 6, Derek Arguello 1 4-4 6, Jon Halbert 1 0-0 2, Tanner Pursell 0 1-2 1. Totals 25 9-14 65.

3-point goals - Prairie Grove 6 (Tice 3, Speed 2, Smith 1), Gentry 4 (Boyd 3, Stoufflet).

Third quarter lapse hurts Lady Pioneers By Mark Humphrey

PRAIRIE GROVE - The Prairie Grove Lady Tigers (19-4, 12-0) assured themselves at least a share of the conference title with a 62-27 runaway win over Gentry (8-13, 2-9) on Friday.

“The main thing is we’re into Regionals. We don’t have to work our way through the district tournament,” said Prairie Grove coach Kevin Froud, who noted this is the fourth consecutive year his team has either won or shared the 1-4A girls basketball title.

The teams combined for a trio of 3-point shots as the game began.

Macie Kultgren got the Lady Tigers started with a 3-pointer from the left wing. Jordan Olds answered for Gentry, then Justyne Huber hit from downtown. Kultgren faked right, then went left and made a driving layup and Huber was left alone and putback a Lady Tiger miss as Prairie Grove seized an early 10-3 lead.

Olds hit from the left corner and Karoline Page scored on a back cut on a feed from Tara Arnold to pull Gentry back within 10-7. Lacey Beeks hit a layup for Prairie Grove and Shelby Hammond knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the key for Gentry as the Pioneers hung tough, just down 12-10 with 2:33 showing in the first quarter.

Prairie Grove then reeled off 14 unanswered points. Arnold’s free throws midway through the second broke the run, but Gentry trailed 26-12. The Pioneers closed out the stanza with a 9-6 spurt to close within, 32-21, at half-time but their offense vanished in the second half.

Gentry scored just 6 points over the final two quarters, while Prairie Grove tacked on another 30 points to win easily, 62-27.

“That’s the first blowout we’ve had in awhile,” Froud said. “This is a tough conference.”

Gentry coach Tim Rippy said the Pioneers are effective defensively when they are able to close out on shooters but suffered from a lapse.

“We were a little bit slow on our feet in the third quarter getting out and they hit 3 to 4 consecutive threes that kind of gapped the ball game.”

With a rescheduled game at Lincoln on Wednesday, the Pioneers will play three games this week.

“I hope it’s good for us. We need to get in a tournament mindset or else its going to be over real soon,” Rippy said. “This gives us a chance to get an extra game going into the tournament to hopefully build some momentum.”PRAIRIE GROVE 62

GENTRY 27 Gentry 10 11 5 1 - 27 Prairie Grove 16 16 17 13 - 62 Prairie Grove (19-4, 12-0): Whitnee Fitts 2-7 0-0 5, Justyne Huber 6-9 2-3 15, Lacey Beeks 8-11 2-2 22, Abby Smith 2-4 0-0 4, Macie Kultgen 5-8 2-2 14, Callie Robinson 0-1 2-2 2, Ceclia Martinez 0-1 0-0, Aryana Mitchell 0-0 0-0 0.

Totals 23-41 8-9 62.

Gentry (8-13, 2-9): Shelby Hammond 3 0-0 7, Jordan Olds 2 1-2 7, Tara Arnold 1 2-2 4, Karoline Page 2 0-0 4, Destiny Thomas 1 0-0 2, Kristen Flesner 1 0-0 2, Aspen Cripps 0 1-2 1. Totals 10 4-6 27.

3-point goals: Prairie Grove 8-20 (Beeks 4-5, Kultgren 2-4, Huber 1-2, Fitts 1-6, Smith 0-2, Martinez 0-1), Gentry 3 (Hammond 2, Olds). Rebounds - Prairie Grove 25 (Huber 7), Assists Prairie Grove 5 (Fitts 2), Turnovers - Prairie Grove 7.

More Results GIRLS OZARK 50, GRAVETTE 39 Ozark 13 14 15 8 - 50, Gravette 17 11 5 6 - 39 GRAVETTE (7-14, 3-9): Samantha Pruitt 9, Monica White 9, Destaney Wishon 8, Whitney DeWitt 8, Kylee Davis 5.

OZARK: No information available.

BOYS DECATUR 28, HACKETT 26 Decatur 8 6 4 10 - 28, Hackett 5 7 3 11 - 26 DECATUR (10-1): Andrew Harris 11, Mario Urquidi 10, Pheng Lee 2, Terry Kell 2, Avery Clay 2, Dakota Pitcher 1. HACKETT: No information available.

Sports, Pages 9 on 02/06/2013