No. 9 Walnut Grove pulled off the first upset of the area’s holiday basketball tournaments by beating No. 8 Pierce City 45-41 in the first round of its home tournament.
The middle quarters proved to be pivotal with the host Tigers outscoring Pierce City 25-13 in the second and third quarters.
Pierce City opened up a five-point lead at 17-12 after the first quarter. Walnut Grove tied the game at 19-19 going into the half by scoring seven points and holding Pierce City to just one basket in the second quarter.
Walnut Grove came out of the break and posted the best offensive quarter of the game scoring 18 points to Pierce City’s 11 to take a commanding 37-30 lead into the break. Pierce City outscored Walnut Grove 11-8 in the final quarter, but it would not be enough.
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Walnut Grove leading scorers Chase Brown and Diesl Phillips took over the third quarter scoring 15 of Walnut Grove’s 18 points in the frame on their way to matching 15-point outputs for the game. The duo each had three 3-point makes in the game.
Pierce City was led by Emmitt Price’s game-high 19 points. Walnut Grove did a good job on Price defensively after he had a 10-point opening quarter. Kyler McWilliams also scored in double figures for Pierce City with 11 points.
Walnut Grove advances to face the winner of No. 1 El Dorado Springs and No. 16 Greenfield at 6 pm on Saturday in the quarterfinal round. Pierce City will face the loser of that same game at 3 pm on Saturday at Marion C. Early High School in Morrisville in the consolation quarterfinals.
(9) Walnut Grove 45, (8) Pierce City 41
Walnut Grove – 12-7-18-8 – 45
Pierce City – 17-2-11-11 — 41
WG: Chase Brown 15, Diesl Phillips 15, Sam Voris 6, Tanner McMillen 5, Rhett McMillan 4
PC: Emmitt Price 19, Kyler McWilliams 11, Judah Linn 4, Layton Mack 4, Quortin Parks 3
