Prairie Grove Boys Advance To 4A-1 Final

FARMINGTON -- Ty Tice never hesitated as he split the defense with just over a minute left.

The Prairie Grove senior point guard found a seam in the Lincoln defense and the Wolves had no chance to slow him down as his layup settled into the net.

4A-1 DISTRICT TOURNAMENT

at Farmington

Tuesday

Game 1: No. 5 Gravette 37, No. 8 Gentry 35 (G)

Game 2: No. 5 Pea Ridge 41, No. 8 Gentry 33 (B)

Game 3: No. 6 Lincoln 46, No. 7 Pea Ridge 38 (G)

Game 4: No. 6 Berryville 28, No. 7 Ozark 20 (B)

Wednesday

Game 5: No. 3 Prairie Grove 60, Lincoln 44 (G)

Game 6: No. 3 Gravette 74, Berryville 67 (B)

Game 7: No. 4 Berryville 54, Gravette 43 (G)

Game 8: No. 4 Prairie Grove 44, Pea Ridge 41 (B)

Friday

Game 9: No. 1 Farmington 52, Berryville 38 (G)

Game 10: Prairie Grove 47, No. 1 Lincoln 46 (B)

Game 11: Prairie Grove 46, No. 2 Ozark 43 (G)

Game 12: No. 2 Farmington 65, Gravette 48 (B)

Today

Game 13: Farmington vs. Prairie Grove (G), 5:30 p.m.

Game 14: Farmington vs. Prairie Grove (B), 7 p.m.

Boys

Prairie Grove 47, Lincoln 46

Prairie Grove^8^18^8^13^—^47

Lincoln^6^16^10^14^—^46

Prairie Grove (15-11): Tice 16, Galligan 12, Soehner 9, Storlie 8, Smith 1.

Lincoln (19-4): McConnell 9, Barnum 9, Hulse 7, Cummings 7, Escareno 6, Goldman 3, Simmons 3, Brewer 2.

Tice scored a game-high 16 points and the No. 4 seed Tigers pulled off a stunning 47-46 win to advance to today's final of the 4A-1 District Tournament by knocking off the No. 1 seed Wolves. Prairie Grove (15-11) will be no worse than a No. 2 seed at next week's 4A-North Regional Tournament, while Lincoln will be the No. 3 seed on its home court.

"That was huge," Prairie Grove coach Steve Edmiston said of Tice's layup. "It gave us a three-point cushion, knowing that we're up that full score. That stemmed that tide for just a brief minute. He wants to be that guy that makes that play, and I love him for it. I wouldn't trade him for another one. He's the heart and soul of what we do."

Before Tice's bucket, the Wolves (19-4) had cut a five-point deficit to 43-42 on Dylan McConnell's drive with 1 minute, 45 seconds left. Prairie Grove's Leighton Smith also had a key layup that gave the Tigers a 47-43 lead with under a minute left, but Lincoln's Tyler Cummings nailed a 3-pointer with 27.2 seconds left, again pulling the Wolves to within one point.

Both teams had chances at the end, and Lincoln had possession with 10.8 seconds left but could not get off a clean shot as Ossy Escareno put up a shot in the lane that missed. Lincoln coach Tim Rich thought Escareno was fouled on the shot.

"I thought they fouled the heck out of him," Rich said, "and they didn't call it. That's pretty much the gist of it."

Lincoln grabbed the early lead as Escareno and Colton Barnum battled inside against Prairie Grove's 6-foot-7 sophomore Dylan Soehner. But Tice went on a personal 8-0 run on a drive, a deep 3-pointer and another shot just inside the 3-point line to give the Tigers a 19-18 lead.

Prairie Grove never trailed again although Lincoln rallied to tie the game twice, the last time at 36-36 on Escareno's drive. The Tigers hit three free throws and Parker Galligan scored on a stickback and the Tigers held on from there.

"We've been playing well here toward the latter part of the season," Edmiston said. "We've won six out of our last seven, so we knew coming in we were playing well and playing confidently.

"I thought for the majority of the game we controlled things and did the things we wanted to do."

Galligan scored 12 for the Tigers and Soehner finished with nine. Barnum and McConnell each scored nine for the Wolves.

Farmington 65, Gravette 48

The host Cardinals rolled into the championship game as freshman Matt Thomas scored a game-high 23 points.

Farmington will take on Highway 62 rival Prairie Grove in the title game at 7:30 p.m. tonight.

Terence Pierce scored 18 for Gravette and Otto Troutner added 10. Gravette will enter next week's regional tournament as the No. 4 seed from the conference.

Girls

Farmington 52, Berryville 38

Haley Maxwell scored a game-high 17 points and Tichina Scales added 15 as No. 1 Farmington advanced to today's championship game.

Britni Smith scored 13 points to lead the Lady Bobcats, who will enter next week's 4A-North Regional Tournament as the No. 4 seed from the conference.

Prairie Grove 46, Ozark 43

Lacy Beeks drained a 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left as the Lady Tigers advanced to today's championship.

With the game tied at 43-43, Ozark's Olivia Melton missed the front end of a 1-and-1, giving Prairie Grove a chance. After a time out, Beeks knocked down the game-winner from the top of the key to finish with 16 points and Abby Smith added 10.

Celia Heffington led the Lady Hillbillies with 22 points.

Sports on 02/22/2014

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