The Hudson Raiders girls’ basketball team rode a dominant second half to a 59-39 win at home against Prescott on Tuesday, Jan. 17, which snapped the Cardinals’ nine-game win streak that dated back to the second game of the season.

For Prescott, Tuesday night’s game was a measuring stick opportunity against one of the top Division 1 programs in the state. Hudson went into the game 12-2 overall and as winners of four consecutive games. Prescott traveled to Hudson with nine consecutive, looking to make it a double-digit win streak for the first time since the 2020-21 season.

Instead, Prescott struggled, particularly in the second half, as the Raiders outscored the Cardinals 25-11 in the final 18 minutes en route to the blowout victory. Prescott head coach Owen Hamilton knows Hudson is the caliber of team his girls will have to beat in their quest for a state championship.

“I told the girls that’s the best team we’ve seen – they’re better than Elk Mound,” Hamilton said. “That team is unbelievable and that was a good test for us. That’s the type of team that we will have to beat late in the season and the type of team we will be playing against if we want to go home with that gold ball at the end of the year.”

Throughout the first 11 minutes of Tuesday night’s game, Hudson had built an 11-point lead, 24-13, in large part because of success in the paint. Prescott responded with a 15-4 run that culminated in a layup by junior forward Lila Posthuma which tied the game 2828 with under four minutes remaining in the first half.

Prescott’s run featured all of the usual characters, as Posthuma controlled the paint, freshman Violet Otto made slashing finishes at the rim and Katrina Budworth got to the free throw line regularly.

However, Hudson finished the final four minutes of the first half on a 6-0 run and went into the break with a 34-28 lead. Coach Hamilton spoke about falling behind by a dozen early in the first half and then battling to make it a small deficit going into the final 18 minutes of action.

“We started with three or four turnovers and with some uncharacteristic bad shots. We didn’t make their defense work,” Hamilton said. “We started to make them work, made them tired and then started scoring on them. We went on a run and tied it up at one point.”

Hudson, which has built a reputation for being a strong program defensively, flexed its muscles throughout the second half. The Raiders’ defense bagged a Prescott offense that typically has no issues lighting up the scoreboard, as the Cardinals entered the contest averaging just over 60 points per game.

Hudson used its defensive prowess to force turnovers, grab rebounds and score easily in transition. The Raiders began the second half on a 17-4 run that culminated in a layup by Hudson senior forward Olivia Pettey that made it 51-32 and all but sealed Prescott’s defeat.

For coach Hamilton, a lot of the second-half woes were self-inflicted. The Cardinals offered little paint resistance to Hudson’s dominant interior forces and Prescott turned it over regularly. He spoke about the issues that ultimately cost Prescott the game.

“In the first half, we got back in transition against a really good transition team and limited turnovers. In the second half, it looked like we forgot all about that,” Hamilton said. “I don’t know if we got nervous that we were playing a really good team that started to get on a run or what it was. We just got rattled and never really grouped it together in the second half.”

Hudson did nearly all of its damage inside the paint against Prescott, as the Raiders only made three shots from beyond the arc all night. The aforementioned Pettey led Hudson in scoring with 15 points on an efficient 7-9 from the floor. She also grabbed six rebounds, dished out one assist and had four steals.

Leading scorers for Prescott include Otto with 13, Budworth had nine, and Posthuma finished with eight points in the defeat. Coach Hamilton spoke about the defeat and how he believes it isn’t a good indicator of how well his team can play against Hudson.

“The score doesn’t paint how good of a team we still are,” Hamilton said. “I told the girls, if we play them 10 times, they might get us five or six times, but we beat them just as much as they beat us. I think tonight was an outlier and I think we’re just as talented. Tonight just wasn’t our night. That 20 points isn’t a good measure of what it is.”

With the loss, Prescott slipped to 9-2 overall while Hudson improved to 13-2. Although Prescott certainly missed an opportunity to knock off an elite Hudson team, coach Hamilton is confident his girls will bounce back.

“I think we’re going to learn, just like we did against Elk Mound. We learned where we struggled and won nine straight,” Hamilton said. “There’s no reason we can’t learn again and win nine or ten straight again and go on a run to end the year.”

Prescott did exactly as Hamilton expected and bounced back with a 46-35 win on the road against Osceola on Thursday, Jan. 19. With the win, Prescott improved to 10-2 overall and 7-0 in league play.

The Cardinals are back in action on Tuesday, Jan. 24, at home against Somerset. Tipoff for that game is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Junior Lila Posthuma of the Prescott girls’ basketball team takes a corner three-pointer during the road game against Hudson. Photo by Reagan Hoverman