Defense wins championships. It may be a cliche’, but the Division 1 Prairie City/Burnt River Lady Panthers validated the saying on Tuesday, Dec. 6, cutting into passing lanes and smothering the Division 2 Grant Union Lady Prospectors on defense to leave Grant Union High School with a convincing 44-24 win in a cross-county showdown.

Battling a stifling defense is bad enough, but the Lady Pros didn’t do themselves any favors as miscues and errant passes added to the difficulty of cutting into an early Prairie City lead. The Lady Panthers took a 20-10 advantage into halftime with everything appearing to be going their way.

The third quarter was big for the Lady Panthers, who scored almost as many points (16) in the period as they did in all of the first half. Jaycee Winegar would score six of her team-high 10 points in the third to help the Lady Panthers push their lead to 20 at 36-16 headed into the final quarter of play.

The final frame was a push on the scoring side of things, with both teams posting eight points in the quarter. The fourth would wind up being the highest-scoring quarter for the Lady Pros and the lowest-scoring quarter for the Lady Panthers, but it wasn’t enough to change the outcome.

The 20-point lead the Lady Panthers built at the end of the third quarter would hold through to the end of the contest, with the Lady Panthers staying perfect on the young season at 4-0. The loss left the Lady Pros at 0-3 on the season and still searching for their first win in the 2022-23 campaign.

There were bright spots for the Lady Pros, most notably Raney Anderson. The Lady Panthers struggled to deal with Anderson’s size and length in the paint as she scored a game-high 18 points.

Laken McKay had a solid outing, chipping in nine points for the Lady Panthers. Betty Ann Wilson and Skylar McKay finished the game with five points each for Prairie City/Burnt River.

Grant Union head coach Jason Miller highlighted the team’s ability to push the ball inside at times, adding that good things happened when the team put the ball into the paint.

“When we were able to get the ball inside, we made some positive outcomes on offense,” he said.

Defensively, the team still has some work to do, according to Miller.

“Defensively we need to do a better job of fighting for good position and blocking out. We just need to continue to work hard and see the game,” he said.