Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

PHS Basketball Squads Head To Regional Action At Fountain Lake

The De Queen senior girls took Prescott for a cleaning Saturday night in the finals of the 7AA District Tournament here.

The Lady Leopards were getting revenge from the week before, when the Wolverettes took a 74-58 win from De Queen. Actually, the 16-point Prescott victory had been a revengeful win from a nine-point loss to the Lady Leopards earlier in the season. That win pitted the Wolverettes in top seed of the district, even though De Queen was co-champion.

In addition to De Queen whipping the Wolverettes 60 to 35 Saturday, the Fordyce senior boys defeated Fountain Lake 81 to 60.

The Redbugs and the Lady Leopards will have the number one positions this week in their respective divisions of the Class AA Regional Tournament at Fountain Lake.

As runners-up in the tournament, the Wolverettes will play the third best team from the 8AA Conference in southeastern Arkansas. That game is today (Wednesday) at 4:00 against the McGehee Lady Owls.

The Fordyce win was expected, although the Fountain Lake Cobras put up a good battle.

The Prescott Curley Wolves took a 46-39 loss against the De Queen Leopards to take fourth place. The Wolves will play Dollarway, the number one seed out of District 8AA, Thursday night at 7:00.

Not only were the Wolverettes the top choice locally to win the tourney, but polls across the state had Prescott winning. The only thing not reckoned was sickness.

Sophomore Traci Graham missed school all week, because of mononucleosis. According to reports, her doctor said she could not play for 30 days. She missed last week's tournament, and she will miss the rest, unless the doctor should release her Monday.

Graham's absence was reflected the night before in the semi-finals, when the Wolverettes only scored 50 points against Fordyce; they had been averaging around 70 points.

Saturday's loss in the finals cannot be blamed on the outstanding guard, though.

The Lady Leopards knew she was missing and dogged Stacy Stockton and Andrea Cossey, the other two guard-forward players making up the terrible trio of the Wolverettes.

Cossey, who can hit from long range regularly, only managed two Saturday, once in the first quarter and the last in the final period. The De Queen defense stuck with her like glue.

Stockton, who usually works the base line, was prevented from doing so most of the time. She drew at least one charge in the process. Stockton eventually fouled out in the final period.

Meanwhile, she had to play point guard, bringing the ball down court with the help of Cossey and Mandy Cox.

Through it all, however, Stockton managed 14 points, the only Prescott player to score in double figures.

Cossey was completely covered up during the entire game, and when she managed a three-pointer it was in the face of a defensive player.

The Lady Leopards' defense worked real well, containing the two top scorers and forcing Prescott to keep the ball outside.

In addition, nothing else seemed to go right. Turnovers plagued the team as they went down in defeat.

On defense, the Wolverettes used two, sometimes three players, to keep the ball away from post Katie Stearns, who scored 16 points in spite of those efforts. In the meantime, five three-pointers dropped through the net from long distance.

In addition to Cossey and Stockton being stopped, Jessica Hendrix, Dashawn Fellows, Kamori Scott, et al were all cold.

At the free throw line, the story was the same. The Wolverettes only hit two out of 13 tries while De Queen made 17 of 25 attempts.

Even though the Wolverettes didn't capture the big trophy, they are still champions at Prescott.

De Queen led 17-11 after one quarter, 29-14 at halftime and 44-27 going into the final period.

In addition to Stockton's 14 points, Cossey and Scott added six points apiece, Fellows 3, and Hendrix, Cox and Jesna Cornelius finished with 2 points each.

In the other championship game,

Darrin Brazil of Fordyce scored 20 points to lead all players. He was followed by Manny Reynolds with 18, Kevin Williams with 17 and C.J. Brazil with 12 points.

Leading the scoring for the Cobras were Nathan Chaney with 15 points and Matt Wendland with 13.

By quarters, Fordyce led 18-11, 36-23 and 59-41.

In addition to the two Prescott teams playing in the regional this week, two teams from Fordyce, Fountain Lake and De Queen made the tourney.

In the boys' division, Fordyce came in first, Fountain Lake second, De Queen third and Prescott fourth.

The De Queen, Prescott, Fountain Lake and Fordyce senior girls in that order make up the other division from the 7AA Conference.

PRESCOTT WOLVERETTES 50,

FORDYCE LADY REDBUGS 43

It was tough going for the Wolverettes in the semi-finals of the district tourney against the Lady Redbugs of Fordyce, but Prescott won it 50-43.

The Lady Redbugs felt they had a chance with Graham out. They, too, tried to keep Stockton and Cossey covered, but their defense was not as solid as De Queen's.

Prescott led it 16-6 after one quarter, but the Lady Redbugs closed the gap some and only trailed by three, 23-20, at the halftime break. The Wolverettes led 32-28 going into the final period.

Stockton hit five 2-pointers and 8 of 12 free throws for 18 points in the game.

Cossey hit four 3-pointers, two in the first period and two in the third, for 12 points.

Fellows also came through with 12 points for the winners, hitting five 2-pointers, but only 2 of 5 free throws.

Others scoring for Prescott against Fordyce were Cox with six points and Scott with two.

In the semi-final game, which Prescott won an automatic berth to by being top- seeded, the Wolverettes made 10 out of 17 free throws, a much better percentage than in the finals.

Jenna Rankin was the leading scorer for the Lady Redbugs with 12 points, three 2-pointers and 6 of 9 from the charity stripe.

They made 9 of 16 free throw attempts.

MONDAY'S ACTION

In the first game of the district tourney, the Nashville Scrappers were edged by the Bismarck Lions, 39-37. The Lions had entered the tournament with only one win on the court with 11 losses. Nashville had a 3-9 record.

In the second game, the Fouke Lady Panthers defeated the Lady Lions of Bismarck, 37-34, to advance.

CURLEY WOLVES 66,

PANTHERS 38

The final game on Monday pitted the Prescott Curley Wolves against the Fouke Panthers, with Prescott winning big, 66-38.

Tucker Baker pumped in 17 points to lead the winners. He hit eight 2-points and was perfect from the free throw line.

Heath Gammage scored 12 points for the Wolves, hitting three 2-pointers and two 3-pointers.

Jason Morrow also finished with 12 points, scoring four 2-pointers, one 3-pointer and he was