The Forestburg Longhorns won their third straight district game on Tuesday with a win against Prairie Valley at home.
The Longhorns pulled away in the second half and won 52-38 against the youth filled Bulldogs team.
Forestburg was well rested coming off a bye game and before that beating Saint Jo to improve to 2-2.
Prairie Valley was coming off its first district win at Saint Jo, in which the Bulldogs came back to swing the game with a big fourth quarter.
The game started off competitively. Prairie Valley came out in a 1-3-1 defense that surprised the Longhorns. Forestburg early on showed its advantage in size in the post by gobbling up offensive rebounds for second and third chances, but only a few shots went in for the team in the first quarter.
The Bulldogs were running players off of picks to get open looks on the perimeter and tried to spread out the Longhorns defense, which started the game playing man-to-man. Prairie Valley got some good looks and in the first quarter knocked in a couple of 3-pointers and was able to drive to the basket for shots around the rim.
The Bulldogs led 12-9 heading into the second quarter.
Prairie Valley’s offense then stopped making shots. Despite getting some good looks, the shots were not going in. With Forestburg’s superiority rebounding the ball, trips were one and done as the Bulldogs scored only six points before halftime.
The Longhorns offense opened up and started getting everyone in on the action scoring the ball as five different players made at least one basket.
With Prairie Valley defenders doing a good job of chasing Forestburg off the 3-point line, Longhorn players settled for and made some mid-range shots.
That along with the continued dominance rebounding the ball allowed for some made baskets around the rim for Forestburg. The Longhorns scored 15 points and took the lead 24-18 into halftime.
The trouble continued for Prairie Valley in the third quarter. Forestburg was now playing zone, but pressuring more on the perimeter. With shots continuing to not fall for the Bulldogs, players were encouraged to try and drive to the basket, but baskets continued to be hard to come by. Prairie Valley only scored five points in the third quarter.
Forestburg’s offense continued to go, even if only three players scored in the quarter. The Longhorns did not have as much success scoring from the post, but made shots driving to the rim.
They scored 14 points and grew their lead to double-digits 38-23 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Bulldogs were not going away though. Coming off a game where they came back in the final period thanks in part to a change in defense, Prairie Valley switched to a full-court press, man-to-man defense.
It seemed to reenergize the Bulldogs shooting as the team made four 3-pointers in the quarter.
Unfortunately for Prairie Valley, the pressure defense was a double-edged sword, allowing some easy points and looks for Forestburg when it was broken. The Longhorns had a plethora of good chances at the rim during the quarter. While the team did not convert all of them, Forestburg still kept pace with the hot shooting Bulldogs to not give up much of its lead.
The Longhorns held on to win 52-38.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.