The Prescott Cardinals defeated the Durand-Arkansaw Panthers by a score of 60-35 in Prescott on Tuesday night.

This was the first of a three-game slate against non-Middle Border Conference opponents that will wrap up the 2023 portion of the season for Prescott.

A three-pointer got Prescott on the board, and another quick score had them out in front by five. Durand dropped a three in the bucket for themselves, but things tightened up after that.

With 10:20 left in the first period, the score was knotted at five, and the Cardinals were driving down court. Max Montieth pulled a string from the corner to take a three-point lead, and a minute later, he did it again bringing the score to 11-7 in favor of Prescott.

The Cardinals kept increasing their lead as the period progressed. At 16-9, Dallas Wallin made a terrific hook shot from underneath the basket while under heavy duress. The resulting foul from this defensive pressure put him at the charity stripe, and he added on another point to make it 20-9.

With the final 45 seconds of the first period ticking off the clock, Ian Leask got a nice block to give Prescott the ball. They quickly moved it up court, and with just 0:12 left on the clock, they hit another three and went into halftime up 25-11.

The second half started fast once again for the red birds. A fast break from Kobe Russell to Wallin got the score moving in the right direction.

Russell then showed up in the box score thrice more in rapid succession. First with a self-assisted score after rebounding his own shot and dumping it in for a layup, then running it right back from the other side for a three-pointer and finally with two free throws after drawing a foul to make it 34-11 with 15:30 to go.

Wallin followed that up with a three of his own. Relentless tight coverage by both teams resulted in a bunch of rebounds, but finally Wallin hit another three to make it 40-11, whereafter Durand signaled for a timeout. It didn’t help, however, as Wallin blocked a pass, recovered the contested ball and took a fast break down court and jumped up for a rare dunk to finish out his eight-point run for the home team.

Durand just wasn’t able to get anything going as Prescott was playing excellent defense. By the 9:30 mark, the Cardinals had a 47-15, 32-point lead. It wasn’t long after that they began to bench the starters for the remainder of the game, with the final score being 60-35.

This was a matchup of two teams that are in first place in their respective conferences, the Middle Border for Prescott and the Dunn-St. Croix for the Panthers. That being said, there was never a time where it felt like the Cardinals were not in control of the game.

On the night, Prescott had a massive 42 rebounds to go along with 13 assists, five steals and three blocks. They also shot well throughout as their top three scorers combined for 44 points while shooting 50% from the field, 46% on three’s and 80% from the line.

The top offensive player was Wallin once again, who came a rebound shy of a double-double. He scored 23 while gathering in nine rebounds to go along with four blocks, two steals and two assists. Russell, Montieth and Mason Schommer also had nice nights for the Cardinals.

Wallin is a senior that has been a big part of a Prescott program that has known a lot of success in the past few years, although they’ve never been able to get over the hump and make it to state. He says that’s the goal this winter.

“We played really well tonight, but I think we're just scratching the surface for our potential. We go through ups and downs with our offense and missing shots, but playing good defense is really our motto this year. Our defense also creates opportunities on offense, for sure,” Wallin said. “We'd win a game like 95-85 the last couple years, but now we can score 50 points and still win by 25-30. That's what's going to really help us down the stretch.”

Head Coach Nick Johnson concurred with Wallin, saying they really want to hang their hat on their defense this season.

“Our team works so hard defensively, and they do such a good job. We weren't the best offensive team in the first half, but we made it tough on them to score on every possession. Holding them to 11 points is impressive,” Johnson said.

Coach Johnson says this is a team that is a little different than in years past. There’s a lot of new faces, and that’s why their strategy has changed as a result.

“It’s a new group of guys playing together. We knew it wasn't going to be the prettiest offensively right away, but we’ve got guys that just get after it and make it difficult for other teams to get good looks. When teams do get looks, we contest shots and rebound well, so it's definitely a good feeling as a coach,” Johnson said. “Even tonight, in a high school basketball game, you'd probably say you’d lose a lot of games only scoring 25 in the first half, but when you hold a team to 11 and you're up 14, that's saying something.”

The Prescott Cardinals are now 6-1 on the season and tied for second in the Middle Border Conference at 3-1 with Baldwin-Woodville. Osceola currently resides at number 1, but Prescott will get a chance to take the lead after the holidays when MBC play really heats up.

Next up is a tournament in Hastings on Dec. 28 and 29 before returning home to host the aforementioned Baldwin-Woodville Blackhawks to determine the undisputed owner of second place in the Middle Border on Tuesday, Jan. 2. Tip off for the tournament is 5:15 for day one and TBD for day two, and it’s at 7 p.m. for their home game against Baldwin.