Pratt High School boys basketball coach David Swank would have had trouble scripting a better start to Friday’s regular season finale for his team, as the Greenbacks raced to a 27-3 lead and did not give up a field goal in the first 9:43 of their 70-32 win over Ulysses.
The Greenbacks led by thirty points by the time Ulysses finally made a field goal, and that basket was their only one of the first half. The Tigers scored the rest of their 10 first-half points from the free throw line as Pratt led 44-10 at the break.
Junior Matt Swank was a big part of the Greenbacks’ first-half success. He hit four three-pointers in the opening half and finished with 32 points in the game.
Swank’s four-point play with 1:04 left in the third made it a 40-point game, and a three by Brady Batman pushed Pratt’s lead to 64-23 with ten seconds left in the third.
With over five minutes left in the game, the Greenbacks’ starters were watching their backups maintain the lead.
In the final minutes, Edgar Elias scored off an assist from Cameron Ford, and Grayson Hostetler got his first varsity point from the free throw line.
The Greenbacks (18-2, 8-0) finished as undefeated MSAA champions, and will be the top seed in next week’s Class 4A Sub-State Tournament in Kingman.
PHS got 13 points from Batman, 11 from Skylar Angood and eight from Micah Swank.
The Greenbacks played 13 players and had eight of them score, plus made nine three-pointers in the game.
Pratt expects to host Kingman (3-15) in a Tuesday, March 2 first-round game, but the official sub-state pairings will be announced later this week.
Pratt boys 70, Ulysses 32
UHS: Garrett Kissell 11, Bryce Moral 8, Braden Langston 6, Chris Oliver 2, Sergio Perez 2, Kyle Zerr 2, Trent Langston 1. TOTALS 9 (2) 12-18 32.
PHS: Matt Swank 32, Brady Batman 13, Skylar Angood 11, Micah Swank 8, Edgar Elias 2, Brad Richardson 2, Grayson Hostetler 1, Austin McClain 1, B.J. Dean 0, Cameron Ford 0, Rhett Hostetler 0, Payson Maydew 0, Luke Southard 0. TOTALS 22 (9) 17-22 70.
U 3 7 16 3 — 32
P 27 17 20 6 — 70
Ulysses girls 38, Pratt 26
The Lady Greenbacks never found a rhythm Friday night against Ulysses.
They trailed 7-4 after one quarter, but tied the game at halftime.
Ulysses put it away with a 14-3 run through the third quarter, then held on for the 38-26 win.
Pratt hit just ten of 51 shots and turned the ball over 25 times in the game.
Payton Hoeme finished with 12 points, ten rebounds and two blocks while Aubrey Hoover and Dominique Staats had ten rebounds each and Ashton Neumann blocked two shots.
Ulysses girls 38, Pratt 26
UHS: Kaylea Britton 6 (1) 2-4 17,Courtney Anthony 3 0-0 6, Janni Meierhoff 3 0-0 6, Mandy Spencer 2 0-0 4, Jackie McCauley 0 3-4 3, Jayde Jarnagin 1 0-1 2, Samantha Monzon 0 0-0 0, Vanessa Rodriguez 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 16 (1) 5-9 38.
PHS: Payton Hoeme 6 0-1 12, Aubrey Hoover 2 1-5 5, Taylor Ibarra 1 2-2 4, Ashton Neumann (1) 1-2 4, Rystal Hoeme 0 1-2 1, Brooke Blankenship 0 0-0 0, Whitney Amaro 0 0-0 0, Dominique Staats 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 10 (1) 5-12 26.
U 7 8 14 9 - 38
P 4 11 3 8 - 26
