<I>The Eagle/David Heldreth</I><BR>Brandon Crisler grabs a rebound over Adrian defenders on Friday. The Panthers fell 57-48 to the Antelopes.

PRAIRIE CITY – The Prairie City boys basketball team can’t seem to take the final step this season.

The Panthers have come up just short in several of their last games. They fell 69-50 to Spray on Dec. 11 in a game that they led for most of the first half. Prairie City repeated the streak with a 57-48 loss to Adrian on Friday and a 74-43 loss to Jordan Valley on Saturday.

Prairie City’s center Drew Meacham said his team has struggled in key moments.

“The difference in my opinion was that we panic when we get pressured,” Meacham said. “We get rushed and don’t take good shots. We play well as a team, but we don’t know how to keep calm.”

Prairie City came out quick, scoring the first points in the game. It was close through the majority of the first quarter, but Adrian went on a 7-2 run in the final three minutes of the quarter to go up by five.

The Antelopes never allowed the Panthers back within five in the half, and they extended the lead to go up 32-22 at halftime.

The momentum shifted in favor of Prairie City once the teams retook the court. Panthers Dylan Hendriksen and George Wickhorst hit several key shots early in the third quarter to close the gap to four points.

However, Prairie City’s run was short lived as Adrian outscored them 12-2 in the final four minutes of the third quarter and led 48-32. The fourth quarter mirrored the third with the Panthers making a run to within six points, but the Antelopes managed to hold out for the win.

“At one point in the fourth we were only down by six, but we couldn’t keep out momentum going,” Prairie City Coach Ryan Gerry said. “We’d make an eight-point run and give it back. We just can’t win close games.”

The Panthers were unable to hit the outside shot on Friday, and didn’t have a single 3-pointer in the game. Wickhorst is normally the go to man for outside shots, but wasn’t hitting them early in the game. He then began attacking the basket and drawing fouls. Despite the difficulties Wickhorst finished the game with 10 points.

Brandon Crisler earned 24 points in the game and was the leading scorer from either team. Crisler not only got it done offensively, he also played strong defense, creating turnovers and grabbing rebounds.

“He (Crisler) has had quite a few 20-plus games,” Gerry said. “It’s nice to see that he’s staying consistent. We didn’t have any 3-pointers so we got most of our points in transition. George is usually our set 3-point shooter, but he had to adjust and drive because he couldn’t get them to fall.”

Luckily for the Panthers Wickhorst’s difficulties with the long shot cleared up in time for their Saturday meeting with Jordan Valley. He hit three 3-pointers in game and led the team with 11 points. Hendriksen also had 11 points in the game including 2 3-pointers.

However, the Panthers traded strong outside shooting for a lack of an inside game on Saturday. Jordan Valley’s multiple 6-footers helped them shut down Prairie City in the post. The Mustangs have three players that are more than 6 foot 5 inches.

“We need to find ways to score when the outside shot isn’t falling,” Gerry said. “Against Adrian we pounded the ball down low, but that didn’t work against Jordan’s size. We need more of a mixture. We need to work on ball movement because we tend to hold the ball too too long and let the defense adjust.”

Prairie City’s Michael Bass stepped up defensively on Saturday guarding Jordan Valley’s point guard Alex Quintero. Gerry said Quintero is a strong outside shooter, but Bass was able to hold him to a single shot from beyond the arc.

Jordan Valley came out aggressive in the first half and took a 46-15 lead. However, the second half was hard fought with both teams earning 28 points. Early foul trouble hurt the Panthers and Meacham and Crisler sat out large portions of the second half. Crisler eventually fouled out late in the game. He had eight rebounds and six points in the game.

Prairie City will play Monument/Dayville at home at about 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 25. The Panthers will then make the drive to Mitchell on Saturday.