The Prairie girls basketball team could have picked from a handful of positives when deciding its biggest takeaway from its 64-59 nonleague win over W.F. West of Chehalis on Saturday.
The Falcons effectively limited turnovers and found shots against stifling full-court pressure. They won a close game against a competitive 2A opponent that it lost to last season. And the win — Prairie’s last nonleague game of the regular season — will certainly give the Falcons (8-2) a needed bump in the RPI rankings.
But the Falcons’ biggest takeaway was much more practical.
“It was probably our best defensive game all year, hands down,” Prairie coach Hala Corral said.
And she’s right. W.F. West’s offensive output was certainly not the reason it stayed competitive.
“We kind of stumped them in the beginning,” Corral added. “They couldn’t get the ball in anywhere, and they were taking 3-pointers five feet behind the line because there was just nothing open. They had very few easy buckets.”
Prairie led by as many as 13 points in the fourth quarter, but W.F. West’s Courtney Bennett hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead cut to four with less than 30 seconds left.
Two possessions later, Brooke Walling hit a pair of free throws to put Prairie up seven, then W.F. West’s Kiara Steen was fouled while hitting a 3-pointer with 5.9 seconds left. Her free throw cut the Falcons’ lead to three, until Mallory Williams sealed the win for Prairie with a pair of free throws.
“(Coaches) were really proud of how we handled the pressure,” Prairie guard Cassidy Gardner said.
And even against W.F. West’s full-court pressure, Prairie’s offense was effective, too.
Walling and Gardner each scored 21 points for the Falcons. Gardner hit four 3-pointers in the first quarter, and scored most of her points in the first half. Walling got going in the third quarter — and not by accident.
Last year the Falcons fell to the Bearcats in Chehalis by nine points. Prairie certainly knew what to expect this time around.
“We didn’t shut down,” Walling said. “Last year we would have totally shut down. But we stayed composed.”
The win will bolster Prairie’s resume for playoff seeding.
“They will probably place at 2A (state playoffs) this year,” Walling said. “So for us to beat them, it’s huge for us.”
Walling scored Prairie’s first seven points of the third quarter, which included two three-point plays. Her spark helped the Falcons regain control of the game
“We will be as successful as we can if we can pound it down to Brooke and have her go up,” Corral said. “There was no answer for her tonight. She was just taking it to them, and it was nice.”
Walling added a team-high seven boards, five assists and four blocks, showing a multitude of ways she effected the game.
But the Falcons’ leading scorer’s six points in the first half — which came off two 3s –was all the Falcons needed of her. Gardner was the hot hand.
“Cassidy is an amazing shooter,” Corral said. “When she gets hot, she gets hot,” Corral said. “We just kept feeding her the ball. It’s nice to see in a big game like this that she stepped up and wanted to.”
Steen led the Bearcats (9-2) with 21 points.
PRAIRIE 64, W.F. WEST 59
W.F. WEST — Maggie Vadala 1, Julia Johnson 9, Chloee Akins 6, Courtney Bennett 5, Erika Brumfield 11, Kiara Steen 21, Annika Waring 5, Taya McCallum 0. 22 (9) 8-12 59.
PRAIRIE (9-2) — Allison Corral 8, Sydney Weber 6, Brooke Walling 21, Mallory Williams 4, Cassidy Gardner 21, Haley Reed 3, Lauren Vreeken 0. 18 (11) 15-23 64.
