Washington County squads roll at regional
Posted on Friday, February 24, 2006
GENTRY — Following his team’s matchup with Pea Ridge at the AAA Region 1 Tournament at Gentry, Farmington coach Rodney Selph was somewhat disappointed with his squad’s inability to convert at the free throw line. The positives, however, heavily outweighed the negatives.
Behind 35 points from senior Ryan Dennis, the Cardinals outlasted the Blackhawks 50-45 to advance to the AAA State Tournament and also move on to a 5:30 p.m. regional showdown with rival Prairie Grove today. "He’s a senior and he’s been there before,"Selph said of Dennis. "This isn’t his first go-around in the regional, but he came up big tonight.
"He hit some from Washington County. He also rebounded well but he’s a senior and that’s what he’s supposed to do. "
Dennis’ performance was a necessity as the Cardinals (18-7) went 7 of 17 from the charity stripe.
"Our free throw shooting was horrible," Selph said."Leave it up to a coach to find something wrong, but that’s hard to figure out. "
One thing Farmington had deduced was a way to slow down Pea Ridge (18-10) post player Alex Kelly, who quietly knocked down 17.
"Our help defense was outstanding tonight," Selph said. "[Kelly] is such a good player and obviously we were focused on him, every time he caught it we were going to have two or three on him."
With a 7-3 run to begin the fourth quarter, Farmington took a 46-40 advantage with 5:18 left in the game on Dennis’ sixth trey of the ballgame.
The Blackhawks drew to within 46-43 on a Jason Roughton trey at the 2:28 mark of the fourth. Pea Ridge knocked down its only remaining points at the free throw line. "We couldn’t get to the free throw line for some mysterious reason,"Pea Ridge coach Larry Walker said. "We couldn’t get a three to go down, we didn’t make enough shots and threw the ball away too much."
When the Blackhawks reached the charity stripe, they were effective, going 10 of 12.
With a third quarter run of 15-5, Farmington was able to give itself some breathing room, 39-35, after three periods.
A 12-2 Pea Ridge scoring spree in the second period helped the Blackhawks even things at 24-24 at the half. After a 1 of 6 performance in the first quarter on 3-point attempts, Pea Ridge found its inside game with Kelly to draw even at the half. Farmington 15 9 15 11 — 50 Pea Ridge 10 14 11 10 — 45 Farmington: Dennis 35, Caple 7, Pinkerton 4, Littrell 2, Tucker 1, Cunico 1.
Pea Ridge: Kelly 17, S. Woods 8, M. Woods 8, Roughton 7, Neal 5.
Prairie Grove 49,
Booneville 46 (sr. girls) As in the boys contest before it, free throw shooting was key as Prairie Grove (16-13) advanced to a 7 p.m. showdown today with Farmington after a 49-46 win over Booneville on Thursday. Each team went an identical 11 of 17 at the line in the second half. "I’m just extremely proud of this group,"Prairie Grove coach Kevin Froud said. "They’ve worked hard and tonight was by far not one of our better games. Booneville did a great job of getting us into their style of game, we just made some plays at the end."With the Lady Tigers on top 47-46, Melyssa Kaminski stepped to the line and knocked down a pair of free throws. Booneville turned the ball over with: 02 remaining to secure the Tiger win. "We were wanting to speed things up, but with the fouls called we never could really get going,"Froud said. "[Booneville] did an excellent job of shooting free throws."
Prairie Grove now gears up for a date with 4 AAA champ Farmington. "I told them that we’re going to have to play a lot better to even stay on the floor with Farmington,"Froud said.
Sara Parker led Booneville with 14 before fouling out at the end of the third quarter. Samantha Hulet led Prairie Grove with 9. Prairie Grove 9 12 17 11 — 49 Booneville 6 1416 10 — 46 Prairie Grove: Hulet 9, Novak 7, Bartholomew 7, Burris 6, Kaminski 6, Magnueson 5, Swain 4, Box 4, Cate 1.
Booneville: Parker 14, Catlett 13, Horton 9, King 4, Pote 4, Adair 2.
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