Photo: Bella Abt goes up for two of her 14 points
The much improved Prescott Lady Badgers gave the home crowd their first look at a team on the rise, yet still fell to last year’s 4A semi-finalist Deer Valley Skyhawks 64-53.
Bella Abt battled her much bigger opponents inside with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Even with all that inside play, she failed to go to the free throw line. Abt said, “I think we did pretty good tonight against a good team. We need to work on cutting down the turnovers. It was good to play on our home court and see the fans that came out. I was excited coming into this season because I know we have a better team this year. Tonight we kept on playing hard till the end and even though it didn’t turn out like we wanted it to, we know we are going to get better and pick up some wins.”
Photo: Ruby Jensen goes up for a shot over 32 Ashlynn Jensen
Prescott leading scorer was Addie Prisciandaro, who electrified the crowd, drilling four three pointers and finishing with 19 points.
The contest was a close battle through the first quarter. The game was tied at seven, with Deer Valley leading 12-9 after one. The Skyhawks got rolling in the second as Diamond Stevenson, 26 points, and Izzy Majorucon, 16 points, teamed up to lead Deer Valley to a 32-21 lead at the half.
Photo: Rayne Libis gets set to launch a three point shot
Trailing 33-29, the Lady Badgers caught the turnover bug which diminished their chances of a victory as they fell behind 56-34. A much needed time out gave Prescott a reset which resulted in a 19-5 rally as Prisciandaro, Lilly James, and Rayne Libis all hit three point shots. Abt was cleaning up on the inside with rebounds and baskets. Deer Valley called a timeout as their lead was cut to 61-53 with a little over a minute to play.
The Skyhawks created some more turnovers and the basket dried up for Prescott as the Lady Badgers drop to (2-3). Prescott will travel to face Tempe on Thursday at 5:30pm. Deer Valley (1-0) and will host Greenway on December 4.
DEER VALLEY SKYHAWKS 64, PRESCOTT LADY BADGERS 53
Deer Valley (64)-Stevenson 11 4-8 26, Majorucon 5 3-4 16, Clark 2 0-0 5, Akinsite 0 0-0 0, King 0 0-0 0, Perez 2 0-0 4, Childress 2 0-0 6, Romero 0 1-2 1, Jensen 1 0-0 2, Elliot 2 0-0 4. 25 8-14 64.
PRESCOTT (53)-Prisciardaro 7 1-2 19, James 1 1-2 4, Libis 3 0-0 9, Abt 7 0-0 14, Jensen 2 1-4 5, Hobson 1 0-0 2, Little 0 0-0 0, Cunningham 0 0-0 0. 21 3-8 53.
Score by Quarters- 1 2 3 4 – T
Deer Valley 12 20 14 17 – 64
Prescott 9 12 11 21 – 53
Total Fouls-DV 16, P 12
Fouled Out-None
Three Pointers-DV 6, P8
