Girls basketball: Prairie 64, Gig Harbor 49

Sure, Cassidy Gardner hit five 3-pointers and scored 21 points to lead the Prairie girls to a 64-49 win over Gig Harbor in the third-place game Saturday of the 3A bi-district tournament.

But the senior guard wasn’t the focus of the praise of Prairie coach Hala Corral.

That went to a pair of players who shined brightest without the ball.

“Kendyl Carson and Haley Reed have to be our players of the game,” the coach said. “They drew the tough job of trying to slow down (Gig Harbor standout) Brynna Maxwell. She’s probably one of the best, if not the best player in the state. She’s had a couple of 30 point games and one game of 47 or 48. And it was the job of Kendyl and Haley to harrass her and make her work for every shot. (Maxwell) earned every one of her 20 points today.”

In addition to battling the Tide’s Utah-bound star, Carson added 10 points and Reed pulled down 10 rebounds as the Falcons battled out of an early 8-0 hole.

“That was just a total team win, to the eight players who got into the game to the four players on the bench yelling out defensive assignments,” Hala Corral said. “It was just a great, great team win.”

Alli Corral added six points and six assists.

PRAIRIE 64, GIG HARBOR 49

PRAIRIE — Meri Dunford 2, Alli Corral 6, Kendyl Carson 10, Brooke Walling 9, Mallory Williams 6, Cassidy Gardner 21, Claire Heitschmidt 5, Haley Reed 5. Totals 23 (10) 8-11 64.

GIG HARBOR — Tate McReynolds 5, Brynna Maxwell 20, Abby Emery 2, Meghan Edwards 11, Sydney Langworthy 7, Grace Neil 4. Totals 8 (5) 18-23 49.

Prairie 14 11 21 18–64

Gig Harbor 15 10 7 17–49