It was tougher to buy a basket than a dozen eggs for the first 5:13 of the Prescott/Altoona Middle Border Conference girls’ basketball match-up last Tuesday night in Prescott.

The Railroaders' Jasmen Klika drilled a three-pointer at the 12:47 mark in the first half to finally take the cover of the basket. 

"Even though the shots weren't falling at the start," said senior forward Leah French, "I thought we had really good energy and I knew they would start going in."

It was a low-scoring back-and-forth first half. Altoona led 19-14 at the break. Prescott's premiere sports authoritarian, Cripe Olson, was seen in the crowd mumbling to himself during halftime. 

"The Cardinals had 36 turnovers against McDonell Central Catholic last week," said a freshly buzzed-cut Olson. "It's tough to win games with 36 turnovers."

The Cardinals were much improved in the ball control category against Altoona on Tuesday, dropping the turnover number down to 16.

"It would've been almost impossible not to improve from 36," said Head Coach Owen Hamilton. "That's a number (16) I still want to clean up, but it's a number I can live with. Altoona brings the pressure."

The Railroaders did bring the pressure in the second half, but Prescott answered the challenge. With just under 3:50 left in the game and Altoona up 31-29, Prescott junior guard Nora Boles received a pass on the left wing right in front of the Cardinal student section. Boles fired up the three and was hacked on her right arm by Altoona senior Addie Siverling. The shot was good and so was the ensuing free throw. Boles finished with four points for the game, all coming on one huge momentum-swing for the Cardinals.

Prescott junior guard Violet Otto, coming off a red-hot shooting 31-point performance against McDonell Central, was just 1 of 8 from behind the arc against Altoona. Otto fought and scratched her way to a game-high 15 points, but her biggest contribution came in the waning seconds of the game with her Cardinals down 36-35. 

With the clock ticking down, Otto weaved her way through the frenzied congested lane and found senior post player Jeanne Rohl open about four feet from the rim. Rohl had not taken a shot during the entire game. In fact, she had taken just 15 shots on the entire season. Rohl saved her best for last, as she skyed over two Railroaders and hit the game-winning basket with 22 seconds left. Neither team scored in the final seconds. Prescott came away with the 37-36 victory.

"I'm not really a scorer," said Rohl, who's averaging 1.4 points per game on the season. "That was my first game-winning shot. Violet made an incredible pass and we're all happy it went in. It was all teamwork."

"She (Rohl) does exactly what we practice and exactly what we work on and Violet made a great pass," said Hamilton.

"Coach told us we have to keep stacking good on top of good," said French, "so we're going to keep taking the good things and run with them."

"I got that (stacking good term) from the boys' team," said Hamilton. "We've had some similar goods and bads this year. We want to keep stacking the goods."

Speaking of good, senior Rory Zuehlsdorf had another solid game with 10 points and seven rebounds. Zuehlsdorf was 2 of 3 from three-point range and was a perfect 4 for 4 from the free throw line. Zuehlsdorf also had two steals. French pulled down seven rebounds and chipped in four points. Otto also had a game-high eight rebounds to go along with her game-high 15 points.

Prescott will travel to Amery on Thursday Feb. 13 to take on the Warriors. Tip-off is at 7:15 p.m.