Prairie Grove Seniors Step Up

 STAFF PHOTO JASON IVESTER Prairie Grove senior Callie Robinson looks for a pass option against Waldron during the second half on Feb. 26 during the 4A Regional tournament at Lincoln High School.
STAFF PHOTO JASON IVESTER Prairie Grove senior Callie Robinson looks for a pass option against Waldron during the second half on Feb. 26 during the 4A Regional tournament at Lincoln High School.

The four Prairie Grove seniors sat around a table, each assessing another successful season for the Lady Tigers' basketball team.

And while all four had varying opinions on their season, their individual roles on the team and the upcoming state tournament, they all agreed on one thing: Coach Kevin Froud brought all four to tears at some point in their careers.

Profiles

Lacy Beeks

SCHOOL: Prairie Grove

HEIGHT: 5-8

CLASS: Senior

NOTABLE: Team's leading scorer. … Hit game-winning free throw against Waldron to clinch Lady Tigers’ berth in Class 4A state tournament. … Younger sister of Arkansas pitcher Jalen Beeks.

Macie Kultgen

SCHOOL: Prairie Grove

HEIGHT: 5-6

CLASS: Senior

NOTABLE: Tore an ACL before her sophomore season and missed the entire season. … Had a key steal and layup in state-tournament clinching win over Waldron at the 4A-North Regional. … Played post in junior high.

Abby Smith

SCHOOL: Prairie Grove

HEIGHT: 5-6

CLASS: Senior

NOTABLE: Hit a huge shot late in the game in the win over Waldron. … Missed a majority of the season after suffering her third concussion since the end of last season.

Callie Robinson

SCHOOL Prairie Grove

HEIGHT: 5-5

CLASS: Senior

NOTABLE: Often guards opponent’s post players despite giving up several inches in height. … One of the leading rebounders on the team.

They all also agreed his demanding style is the reason the program has enjoyed the tremendous success it has. And this season, despite the loss of perhaps the program's most decorated player ever, the Lady Tigers are again 20-game winners, and are again headed back to the state tournament.

Lacy Beeks, who moved into the role of primary scorer this season after Justyne Huber graduated and moved on to Arkansas-Fort Smith, said her role has been different every season.

"Defense, offense ... I just try to do whatever is best for the team," Beeks said. "It was a big adjustment this year with Justyne gone. We'd always looked to her, got her the ball.

"So this year we all had to step up and take on her role. No one person could replace her."

Prairie Grove's roster featured eight sophomores and just one junior this season in addition to the four seniors. So team leadership fell directly on Beeks, Macie Kultgen, Callie Robinson and Abby Smith. And even with limited experience, the team still won the 4A-1 district tournament against rival Farmington.

"We take a lot of pride in that," Smith said. "We lost Justyne, and she was a great player. But this year we've all had to make plays to win games."

Smith missed a majority of the season after suffering three concussions. But she returned late to help the Lady Tigers end the season strong, although they will enter the state tournament after back-to-back losses in the regionals.

Froud praised the play of the 5-foot-5 Robinson, who often has to guard players much bigger than she is.

"She does a lot of the dirty work for this team," Froud said.

Robinson said it's a role she takes a lot of pride in.

"I'm not there to be the main scorer," she said. "I appreciate the fact that coach appreciates what I do, even though I don't score all the time.

"I'm 5-5, so it's a lot of fighting and we really don't have any tall girls on the team, so I have to get down and dirty to guard my own girl."

Kultgen, who came up big in Prairie Grove's one-point win over Waldron to earn its trip to state, almost wasn't a basketball player at all.

After moving to Prairie Grove, she said a scheduling quirk in seventh grade landed her in athletics when she really wanted to just be in PE classes.

"There was a thing where you either had PE or athletics, and they put me in basketball and I begged my mom to get me out of it," she said. "I didn't want to play, but she made me do it. Over the years I've really appreciated getting to know these girls, getting to play with them."

"We're glad she stuck with it," Smith said.

Despite losing their final two games of the regional tournament and finishing as a No. 4 seed, the Lady Tigers get a clean slate to open the state tournament in Lonoke this week.

For Robinson, it's a chance to prove again that Prairie Grove girls basketball is still a force to be reckoned with.

"It's not over," she said.

That's something else they could all agree upon.

Sports on 03/06/2014

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