Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Wolves win conference

Prescott's senior boys clinched the conference title Friday night with a 70-53 win over Mena.

Now, the Curley Wolves are looking to win the district title and have a bye in the district tournament until Thursday night.

The Wolves opened the game by winning the tip and nailing a trey to put Mena behind immediately.

The Bearcats wound up trying to play catch-up all night long.

Prescott was aggressive on both sides of the ball, looking to run on offense, and smothering Bearcat players on defense with a tight man-to-man defense.

This kept scoring to a minimum in the first quarter as the Cats passed the ball looking for the open shot. Few were to be found, and even fewer made.

At the 4:30 mark, Prescott led 7-5. This would prove to be as close as Mena would get the remainder of the game, as the Cats would only score once more in the first.

The Wolves, meanwhile, doubled their output to take a 14-7 lead at the break.

Speed was the name of the game for Prescott, as the Wolves harassed Mena at every opportunity.

The Cats opened period two with the ball, and scored from the line, hitting one of two free throws.

Then it was off to the races, as the Wolves sprinted up and down the court, wearing the Cats out.

With 5:20 left in the half, Prescott led 18-8, and stretched this to a 21-8 lead moments later.

Meanwhile, Mena continued to show patience on offense, working the ball around the horn, trying to find an open shot. The Cats, though, had problems converting when they did manage to get a shot off.

Halftime arrived with Prescott holding a 10-point lead at 25-15.

Period three opened the same as period two, with Mena getting the ball and scoring from the charity stripe.

Prescott lost the ball on the Wolves's next play, with the Cats taking advantage to cut the lead to 25-19.

All this served to do was make the Wolves mad. Prescott went on a tear, scoring the next seven points to take a 32-19 lead, while the Cats looked stunned at the change.

With 2:33 showing, the Wolves were in the bonus, and leading 36-22, while the Cats were doing whatever they could think of to try and put points on the board.

Prescott outscored Mena 9-6 for the remainder of the third and led 45-28 when the buzzer sounded.

The Cats managed to outscore Prescott in the final eight minutes, 25-15, but it was too little, too late.

Joe Stueart took control on offense, dunking twice on the Cats in the final eight minutes, the first time with six minutes left.

The Wolves built a 20-point lead at 54-34 with 5:34 remaining, with Mena practically helpless to stop them.

Stueart slammed his second one home with 5:10 to go in the game.

Mena, though, tried to fight back and get in the game, but the Cats were forced to foul in order to preserve the clock.

This slowed the game to a crawl, and proved to be ineffective as the Wolves wound up hitting 16 of 23 free throws on the night.

Mena did make a late run to narrow the gap, but the Wolves finished the game by scoring the last five points.

Kevin Fulks and Stueart led Prescott with 18 points each. Justin Tidwell was next with 17, while Decolen Prater connected for 10.

D. Miller led Mena with 16, with Daniel Pate scoring 12.