The Prairie Falcons have two more games in the regular season, two more games to get ready for the only season that matters for the Prairie girls basketball program.
Cherita Daugherty scored 15 points Friday night, leading a balanced attack as Prairie improved to 4-0 in the Class 3A Greater St. Helens League with a 55-35 victory at Columbia River.
That’s four league wins by 20, 30, 65, and 20 points.
That’s why the Falcons are using these final games of league play, as well as their practices, to prepare for the playoffs.
“We’re focused on running our plays through all the way so we can have it down for later games,” Daugherty said.
“We’re talking about the things we need to focus on,” senior Natalie Whitesel said. “We all know the talent we’re facing in the league vs. the talent we’re going to face outside of the league.”
That is the way it is right now in the 3A GSHL. Prairie is that much better than the other three teams in the league.
Prairie coach Brett Johnson said that makes it “very tough” to maintain the intensity, to play the way the Falcons want to play for all 32 minutes.
“We can’t finish out what we’ve been practicing on without looking like a butthead,” he said.
A full game of in-your-face defense, for example, does not look good when up by 30 points or so.
Friday, his team trailed 13-11 just seconds into the second quarter.
Columbia River, though, went 13 minutes without scoring as Prairie went on a 32-0 run to cruise to victory. Daugherty had eight of her points in the 15-0 run to end the second quarter.
While the Falcons appear to be getting ready now, they weren’t exactly thrilled with themselves a few weeks ago. Johnson kicked his players out of a practice, fed up with the effort. The team held a meeting, called by the three captains: Daugherty, Whitesel and Grace Prom.
“I think he was mad at us because he knew we weren’t doing as good as we could,” Daugherty said. “I think things are better now.”
“We talked about what we needed to work on,” said Whitesel, who had eight points and seven steals against River. “Our goal is to get back to state and do better than last year.”
Johnson has increased the intensity in practice in recent days. The Falcons can see the finish line.
“Now we’re critiquing every little thing we do in practice. We want to get everything down to a science,” Johnson said. “We’re trying to up the pace. No walking in practice. Everything is fast pace, fast pace, fast pace. We’re trying to be in better shape than everybody else.”
It might have been tough to motivate the Falcons earlier in the month but not anymore.
“The best part is they got a taste last year,” Johnson said of the Tacoma Dome. “They really, really want to go back.”
PRAIRIE 55, COLUMBIA RIVER 35
PRAIRIE — Sarina Martinez 0, Dejah Gobert 3, Cassidy Gardner 5, Jozie Tangeman 6, Mallory Williams 7, Grace Prom 4, Macey Hsu 5, Cherita Daugherty 15, Natalie Whitesel 8, Lauren Vreeken 0, Malaika Quigley 2. Totals 20 (9) 6-9 55.
COLUMBIA RIVER — Ellie Furth 2, Maddy Kessi 2, Kate Kraft 10, Teaghan Cowles 4, Gabrielle Collins 5, Katie Kolbe 0, Anna Klundt 1, Yaiydenn Lopez-Perez 1, Emma Fish 10. Totals 11 (1) 12-21 35.
Prairie 11 15 17 12–55
C. River 11 2 7 15–35
