The Prescott Cardinals defeated the Amery Warriors in Round 2 of the regional playoffs on Friday by a score of 72-57 and then walloped the Osceola Chieftains 55-39 while securing the regional championship Saturday.

It was a pair of big time wins for the Cardinals as they became regional champion for the second year in a row.

Coming out of their Round 1 bye, the Cardinals couldn’t have asked for more from themselves in the game against the Warriors as they won by over two dozen. It was never close as the Cardinals led by 25 points at halftime and sat their star players at the end to give some other guys some valuable minutes on the court.

Prescott had four guys score double digit points with two others scoring eight as they spread the ball out and shot it well across the board. Dallas Wallin predictably led the way with 18, falling just one rebound shy of the double-double. Mason Schommer was second with 14, Kobe Russell had 13 and Ian Leask rounded out the top four with 11. Kyle Cogan also had a nice game, coming up two rebounds and one field goal shy of his own double-double.

Then came the regional championship game when the Cardinals played host to their rivals from Osceola, a team that had beaten them just two games prior in the conference championship game, but you wouldn’t know it if you saw the game on Saturday night.

While both periods of the game played pretty close, it was Prescott who steadily pulled away all night.

Barrett Temmers and Schommer each had blocks under the net in the early goings to keep giving their offense opportunities while keeping the Chieftains off the board. This was paired with Leask, Russell and Temmers going back-to-back-to-back on deep shots as Prescott tried to run away with things.

Osceola refused to go away and kept nipping at their heels throughout the first period. However, the game went into halftime with the Cardinals up by nine at 28-19.

Prescott continued to build on this lead in the second period, increasing their lead further and further into double digits. With under 4:00 to go, a Wallin three-pointer made it an 18-point game, and that’s about the way the game would finish out as the red birds won a decisive 55-39 victory.

Fans of Cardinals basketball know that beating the Chieftains means something, more than just becoming champion. With this win, Prescott exorcised their personal demon in Osceola, a team that they were eliminated by the past two years in a row, and the same team that stole half the glory of the conference championship from them in the final game of the regular season just two weeks ago. 

Dissimilarly to their last meeting, however, was the production of Wallin and Temmers. In their previous tilt for the conference championship, Osceola limited Wallin to just 10 points, Temmers had 11 and no Cardinal had more than Russell’s 13.

On Saturday night in Prescott, Wallin led the team in points with 21, and this time he got the double-double with 11 rebounds. Temmers was second on the team again but with 16 points to go along with a handful of rebounds. Between the two of them, they were also a perfect 10-10 on shots from the line on a night where the Cardinals were 14-15 as a unit.

Head Coach Nick Johnson says the difference in their last meeting with the Chieftains and this one was in their experience with the opponent as well as the high level of play from their guys.

“I feel we were much more prepared this time around,” Johnson said. “We made a few defensive adjustments which put our players in a better position to be successful, but the bottom line is we just played much better.”

Looking forward, Prescott will head to the neutral site in Hudson to take on conference rival Somerset in the first round of sectional play. The Spartans are a team they’ve already beaten twice this year, yet coaches always talk about the difficulty of beating a team three times in a season, and Johnson says they aren’t taking anything for granted.

“They've ran so many different defenses this season, we need to be prepared for anything from them,” Johnson said. “You have two teams that know each other very well. Sometimes keeping it simple is the best approach at this level and just continuing to work on the things that got us here.” 

Coach Johnson says that a lot of their current players were part of the team that got to sectionals last season, and their experience should be an advantage. He says they will stress this to the players as they prepare for the next step.

As for their conference foe Somerset, although they finished the season third in the Middle Border, they did it with a 20-6 overall record. They also ended their conference season on a tear, winning seven of their last eight games. Interestingly, that one loss was to the Osceola team that Prescott just beat.

The Cardinals’ postseason run continues on Thursday in Hudson. If they prove victorious, they will advance to the sectional finals in Arcadia on Saturday for a chance to become sectional champion for the first time since they won the state tournament six years ago. Both games tip off at 7 p.m.