After a slow start, the second-seeded Prairie Pirates of Cottonwood fought back valiantly in their Idaho Class 2A state final against the Oakley Hornets on Saturday at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.
The top seeds had the answers they needed, however, and finished with a bang to deal the Pirates a 62-51 defeat.
“They did a great job,” Prairie coach Lori Mader said of her team in a speech during the postgame award ceremony. “They represented our community in every great way possible.”
Feeling the Hornets’ sting
The Oakley defense had succeeded in holding the normally high-scoring Pirates (who put up 60-plus points on 18 different occasions) to a season-low 26 points in a nonleague encounter on Dec. 13, and the early stages of the teams’ state title game rematch made it easy to see how. The Hornets swarmed and flustered the Pirates from one end of the court to the other, allowing them only eight points in the first quarter and nine in the second.
“They applied great defensive pressure,” Mader said. “We’ve been the giver of it, and today we had to be the taker of it. Kudos to them.”
Trailing 25-17 at intermission, Prairie moved to a full-court press in the third quarter in search of stops, but seemed to be stuck trailing by two-to-three possessions.
Lexi Schumacher, who had struggled inside, found the spark she and her team needed from beyond the arc. In the highlight play of the day, she launched a three-quarter court buzzer-beater that swished as time expired to end the third, tightening the scoreline to 37-32 and giving the Pirates much-needed momentum heading into the final frame.
“I think it did fire up our kids — and it was such a pure shot, the Oakley fans were yelling ‘Didn’t go in,’” Mader said. “It was just perfect; right through the cylinder.”
Both Lexi and her cousin Kylie Schumacher came on strong in the fourth, with another Lexi Schumacher 3 pulling them within a possession, and yet another triple a couple minutes later tying things up at 46-46 near the halfway point of the period.
Unfortunately for the Pirates, the Hornets responded exceedingly well with their proverbial hive under attack. More precisely, Oakley’s Dakota Wadsworth responded with a barrage of points coming from 3-point goals, an over-the-back inside basket and a handful of confidently drilled free throws.
“She ended up with 11 points in just the fourth quarter,” Mader said of Wadsworth. “A perfect 4-for-4 (from the field), and three of those were 3s.”
Prairie was still at 54-50 with a minute-and-a-half left to play, but Oakley only stepped on the gas in the closing stages, establishing its biggest lead of the day to end the game.
“We gave it the old Pirate effort, but it just wasn’t strong enough,” Mader said.
By the numbers
Lexi Schumacher came away with a team-high 23 points after hitting seven field goals — including four of her six 3-point attempts — and going 4-for-4 from the free throw line in her final game for Prairie. Kylie Schumacher, a junior, had an efficient 6-for-11 day from the field en route to finishing with 15 points while adding six rebounds to her ledger. Fellow Prairie post Sage Elven led the team on the boards with seven and scored six points before fouling out.
Big as Lexi Schumacher’s showing may have been, Wadsworth’s was even bigger. The Hornet senior shot 10-for-17 from the field including 5-for-8 from 3-point range and converted all six of her free-throw attempts to amass half her team’s total with 31 points. She also pulled down seven rebounds and dealt two assists en route to being named MVP.
Ultimately, the teams’ offensive numbers were similar across the board, with Oakley holding a slight edge (whether in net numbers, percentages or both) for each category: 21-of-50 (42%) from the field to Prairie’s 19-of-48 (39.6%), 7-of-15 (46.7%) from 3 to the Pirates’ 4-of-9 (44.4%) and 13-of-16 (81.3%) at the foul line to their rivals’ 9-of-11 (81.8%).
The voyage continues
“Everybody wants to bring home the gold,” Mader said during her postgame speech. “It’s not always going to be possible, but what you guys did, what an awesome showing of who you guys are.”
She embraced each of her players as they stepped forward to receive their individual medals. Lexi Schumacher, Aubree Rehder, Ellie Nuxoll and Kadance Kalmbach saw their days with Prairie basketball come to an end, but with four of five starters set to return, the Pirates’ prospects for more postseason contention a year from now might be seen as bright.
“I’m just thankful to be from the Prairie, and I couldn’t ask for a better group of kids,” Mader concluded. “I’m overall blessed to be part of a dynamic program.”
PRAIRIE (22-3)
Lexi Schumacher 7 4-4 22, Aubree Rehder 0 0-0 0, Sydney Shears 3 0-0 6, Hailey Hanson 0 0-0 0, Nadia Cash 1 0-0 2, Mia Anderson 0 0-0 0, Ellie Nuxoll 0 0-0 0, Kadence Kalmbach 0 0-0 0, Erica Schlader 0 0-0 0, Reagan Brannan 0 0-0 0, Sage Elven 2 2-2 6, Kylie Schumacher 6 3-5 15. Totals 19 9-11 51.
OAKLEY (24-1)
Livee Berliguet 0 1-2 1, Makaye Cranney 1 0-0 2, Chloe Berlin 1 2-2 4, Brooke Mabey 0 0-0 0, Adelyn Maseda 5 3-4 13, Camila Magana 1 0-0 3, Taylin Beck 3 1-2 8, Kinslee Matthews 0 0-0 0, Kandace Jones 0 0-0 0, Dakota Wadsworth 10 6-6 31, Oaklee Wadsworth 0 0-0 0, Jaycee Wells 0 0-0 0, Natalie Hardy 0 0-0 0, Kylee Adams 0 0-0 0. Totals 21 13-16 62.
Prairie 8 9 15 19—51
Oakley 13 12 12 25—62
3-point goals — L. Schumacher 4, D. Wadsworth 5, Magana, Beck.
