BRUSH PRAIRIE — If you saw Prairie and Kelso’s first matchup three weeks ago, Friday night may have seemed like a stunner.
Then, the Falcons were held to their season low in points, and their high-octane offense, led by leading scorer Kam Osborn, was successfully neutralized.
But on Friday night, in a battle for first place in the 3A Greater St. Helen’s League standings — and perhaps more importantly, bi-district seeding — Prairie saw contributions from up and down the roster as the Falcons defeated Kelso 64-55 in a Prairie High School gym stuffed with spectators and drumming with noise.
Obsorn had no issues scoring. He dispensed 27 points — 20 of those coming in the first half.
Braiden Broadbent scored 14 and Dante Heitschmidt pitched in 12 points, including two game-sealing free throws in the final minute.
And the Falcons scared away all the ghosts from that Jan. 16 loss — Prairie’s only one in league play. The win gave Prairie a share of the league title, which it shared with Kelso.
“It was our worst offensive game of the year, and really felt like they just embarrassed us up there,” Prairie coach Kyle Brooks said. “For us to come back with confidence tonight and knowing they’re the best team in our league it gives us a lot of momentum and confidence going into next week.”
Kelso’s Riley Noah hit a 3-pointer to pull within four with less than two minutes left. Heitschmidt’s free throws pushed Prairie’s lead back to six with 1:05 to play. Then Logan Reed provided a crucial block to give the Falcons the ball with less than 45 seconds left and the Falcons held on.
Osborn guided in a fast break layup with less than five seconds left to stamp the win, and as the buzzer sounded, Prairie supporters in the gym erupted as the team jumped up and down in celebration on the court.
“Me, Dante and Braiden have been playing together for a while, so we feed off each other,” Osborn said. “I start the game hot, they’re going to start harping on me, once they start focusing on Dante, we give it to Braiden. Once we get it clicking on offense like that, and get it clicking on defense we’re dangerous.”
After the game, both Prairie and Kelso’s head coaches and athletic directors retired to the auxiliary gym, where they flipped a coin as a tiebreaker to decide bi-district seeding.
Prairie, as if it was riding the wave of energy from the win on the court, won the coin toss.
The Falcons will host Bonney Lake next week to begin the postseason.
Brooks couldn’t help but smile.
“I’m pretty excited right now,” he said, flashing a grin.
That jubilee permeated down the Prairie roster.
Kelso’s shooters had no problems finding open shots around the perimeter. Emmitt Kinch finished with 16 points and Noah had 16, too.
The Falcon’s real defensive win was stopping Hilander big man Shaw Anderson, who poured 29 points on the Falcons the first go-around. Friday appeared to be headed in a similar direction when Anderson scored Kelso’s first six points, including an old-fashioned and-one play.
“We had to pressure him the whole game,” Prairie forward Matthew Kogler said.
Osborn: “We just had to stop him and let everyone else do what they were going to do. When he got the ball, we knew he liked the spin move, so we brought help side on their back. But we just tried to not let him get the ball at all, and I thought we did a pretty good job.”
The Falcons are happy to carry the momentum from Friday’s win into the postseason.
Prairie hosts Bonney Lake (15-5) Thursday at 7 p.m.; Kelso hosts Peninsula (13-7) at the same time.
PRAIRIE 64, KELSO 55
KELSO—Spencer Davis 2, Emmitt Kinch 19, Riley Noah 13, Reece Tack 5, Anders Gamble 2, Shaw Anderson 12, Jon Bowlby 2, Josh Webb 0. 19 (7) 10-16 55.
PRAIRIE— Dante Heitschmidt 12, Kam Osborn 27, Braiden Broadbent 14, Zeke Dixson 2, Nate Millspaugh 0, Kaleb Locke 0, A.j. Dixson 3, Logan Reed 2, Everett Buck 0, Matthew Kogler 4. 21 (9) 13-16 64.
Kelso 16 20 7 12 – 55
Prairie 21 20 10 13 – 64
