PRAIRIE GROVE — Whitnee Fitts was still adjusting to her new role as a starter when she was called upon to take the biggest shot of her career.
Prairie Grove trailed Pea Ridge by three points with just more than 20 seconds left when Lady Tigers girls basketball coach Kevin Froud called a time out. He drew up a play designed for Fitts, who’d already nailed five 3-pointers in the game.
Fitts, a 5-foot-5 senior, raced down the baseline and received the ball on the right wing. She squared up and drained the shot that tied the game, and the Lady Tigers won in overtime en route to a perfect 14-0 record in the 4A-1 Conference.
“It was the first time I’d made a shot like that with the game on the line,” she said. “I was glad coach Froud called that play for me. It gave me a lot of confidence that he had that confidence in me.”
Schedule
Class 4A North Region
At Maumelle
Girls
First Round
Wednesday’s Games
Game 1: No. 1 Prairie Grove vs. No. 4 Dardanelle, 4 p.m.
Game 2: No. 1 Dover vs. No. 4 Gentry, 7 p.m.
Thursday’s Games
Game 3: No. 2 Maumelle vs. No. 3 Ozark, 4 p.m.
Game 4: No. 2 Farmington vs. No. 3 Pottsville, 7 p.m.
Friday’s Games
Game 5: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 4 p.m.
Game 6: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 7 p.m.
Saturday’s Games
Consolation Round
Game 7: Loser Game 5 vs. Loser Game 6, noon
Championship
Game 8: Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 6, 6 p.m.
Prairie Grove (24-4) will need Fitts to continue to hit big shots as it opens play in the 4A-North Regional Tournament at 4 p.m. Wednesday against Dardanelle.
The Lady Tigers are the No. 1 seed from the 4A-1, and Dardanelle is the No. 4 seed from the 4A-4. The winner will earn a berth in next week’s 4A State Tournament in Cave City.
Starting is new to Fitts after coming off the bench as a sophomore and junior. But she prepared for this season with hours in the gym with her dad, working on her 3-point shot. The work has paid off as she is the team’s second-leading scorer at 10.3 points per game and is shooting just less than 40 percent from beyond the arc.
“I really wasn’t much of a 3-point shooter until this year,” Fitts said. “Last year we had other players who were our 3-point shooters. But I’ve really worked on my outside shot.”
Fitts said she won’t leave the gym until she’s made 10 3-pointers in a row. She said some days she’s able to hit the mark quickly but admitted there are days it takes a little longer.
Froud said he would not hesitate to put Fitts into the role of taking the big shot at the end of a game.
“When she gets her shoulders square and squares up to the basket, you know it’s going to go in more times than not,” Froud said. “She’s doing what seniors do, taking care of the ball, playing hard and hitting the shots when we need them.”
Now that she’s comfortable in her role as a starter, her biggest shots may be yet to come.