PRAIRIE GROVE — Gentry had an answer for almost everything Prairie Grove threw at it Wednesday night.
The Lady Tigers, however, had the answers - in the form of 20 forced turnovers - down the stretch in a 68-51 win over the Lady Pioneers.
The win keeps Prairie Grove (16-0, 5-0 4A-1 Conference) undefeated, though Gentry, behind seven 3-pointers, gave the Lady Tigers all they could handle.
“We just kept it on them with the deepness of our bench and put constant pressure on them,” Prairie Grove coach Kevin Froud said. “They got hot from the 3-point line, and we knew they were capable of that.
“It was good for us to have a gamewhere we had to make some plays, make some free throws and take care of the ball.”
Prairie Grove opened the game on a 16-2 run, capped with a three-point play by Kendra Coyle, who finished with a team-high 13 points before leaving the game with a back injury early in the fourth quarter.
Gentry (12-3, 2-1) rallied behind five 3-pointers by Kelsea Whitten to cut into the Lady Tigers’ lead. The Lady Pioneers twice trimmed the deficit to seven - the last time to 48-41 on Kendra Boyd’s 3-pointer.
“The early start was crucial,” Gentry coach Tim Rippy said. “We were hyped up; it wasn’t that we were flat. We may have been a little too hyped up.
“I thought we fought our rears offafter that first three or four minutes.”
Both times Gentry cut into the lead, however, Prairie Grove forced turnovers and scored back-to-back baskets to once again extend the lead.
“We’ve got to learn to handle that a little better, and hopefully that’s part of this team’s growing-up process,” said Rippy, whose Lady Pioneers have already won more games than last season, when they finished 11-15.
Nine players scored for the Lady Tigers, who got 12 points off the bench from sophomore Michelle Lumsargis and 11 from Elysia Clement. Whitten led Gentry with 15 points, all on 3-pointers, and Terra Jones also finished in double figures with 12.
Sports, Pages 7 on 01/20/2010