Prairie City’s Doyal Lawrence, a junior, goes up for a shot Friday, Feb. 18, 2022, against Crane during the High Desert League tourney at Grant Union High School.

JOHN DAY — The Prairie City Panthers aren’t done playing just yet.

Both the boys and girls basketball teams are heading into the postseason after both squads finished third in the 1A-8 High Desert League’s season-ending district tournament, held Thursday, Feb. 17, through Saturday, Feb. 19, at Grant Union High School.

Crane swept both brackets in the tournament in Saturday’s championship games. The girls bested Jordan Valley 44-31, and the boys defeated Adrian 76-62.

The top three finishers from each side of the tournament advance to state, so while the Prairie City squads fell short of a district title, both will move on to postseason play.

Prairie City girls

After knocking off Four Rivers 38-15 in the first game of the competition on Thursday, Feb. 17, the Lady Panthers fell to Jordan Valley 51-31 on Friday, Feb. 18.

But they came back in Saturday’s consolation game, defeating Adrian 55-40 to lock up a state playoff berth.

Betty Ann Wilson scored 28 points on four 3-pointers, five 2-point field goals and six free throws to lead Prairie City. Meanwhile, teammates Kaitlynne Ashley and Jaycee Winegar combined for 22 points, and Brooke Teel poured in five points.

Wilson, who was named Player of the Game, said she thought the Lady Panthers played well as a team and kept the intensity up throughout the whole game. Typically, she said, the squad’s intensity falls off in the third quarter, but that was not the case in Saturday’s game.

“(Saturday’s game) was probably our best game of the season, in my opinion,” Wilson said.

Wilson said it is pretty special to be heading to state afer losing last season to COVID-19.

Prairie City boys

Like the girls team, the Prairie City boys routed Four Rivers 72-53 to kick off the competition on Thursday, Feb. 17, then suffered a 62-41 setback at the hands of the top-seeded Crane Mustangs on Friday. However, in what was universally regarded as their best game of the season, the Panthers bested Jordan Valley 67-51 on Saturday.

Doyal Lawrence, a junior, put on another clinic in shooting, nailing five 3-pointers and a 2-point field goal for a team-high 17 points. Fellow junior Eli Wright, who was named Player of the Game, chipped in 15 points, hitting six 2-point field goals and going three for eight at the free-throw line.

Senior Marcus Judd knocked down four 2-point field goals and was six of nine from the free-throw line for 14 points. For his part, John Titus scored 11 on three 2-point field goals, a 3-pointer and two free throws.

Prairie City coach Bo Workman said he was worried about facing Jordan Valley, having lost twice to the Mustangs in the regular season.

“(Jordan Valley) had a number on us, but our kids played hard,” Workman said.

The Mustangs, Workman said, ran into some shooting difficulties in the final quarters of the game.

“(The Mustangs) hit their shots (and) it’s a tight, tight game,” Workman said.

Workman added that another factor in the game was that the Panthers’ bigger players, like Judd and Wright, started producing points in the paint.

Wright said Jordan Valley was a tough team the entire game. But, he said, what made the difference were halftime adjustments.

“We just made our adjustments,” he said, “and knocked down our shots.”

Cole Teel, Wes Voigt and Tucker Wright combined for 10 points to round out the scoring.