FARMINGTON -- Will Pridmore finished off his 21-point performance with a two-handed slam, but another player provided Farmington with the biggest spark during Thursday's 53-31 win against Huntsville in the Tony Chachere's Classic.
Danny Valenzuela hit back-to-back buckets to cap off a 14-2 run in the second quarter. The 5-foot-8 senior guard then scored 10 of his 16 points, including a pair of 3-pointers, to fend off an Eagles' rally attempt in the third quarter in Cardinal Arena.
FARMINGTON 53, HUNTSVILLE 31
Huntsville^8^4^10^9^–^31
Farmington^9^15^15^14^–^53
Huntsville (5-3): Whelchel 15, Bokbwig 9, McCone 4, Bennett 2, Garrison 1.
Farmington (5-3): Pridmore 21, Valenzuela 16, Montez 7, Shelly 4, Young 3, Vollmer 2.
Valenzuela scored his team's first five points of the third quarter to build on a 24-12 halftime lead. Huntsville got as close as 29-18 on back-to-back 3-pointers by Marpin Bokbwij with 4 minutes, 39 seconds remaining in the third, but Valenzuela would score the next five points to push the margin to 34-18.
"So, so proud of Danny," said Farmington coach Beau Thompson, who graduated from Huntsville High in 1995. "Danny is our captain and he's really our heartbeat, even though a lot of people don't know about him. He does so many little things for us to win, and a lot of the things he does doesn't show up in the stats like it did tonight."
Pridmore scored all nine of his team's points to help Farmington take a 9-8 lead at the end of the first quarter. Huntsville led 8-7 on two free throws by Beau Whelchel and a basket by Bokbwij before Farmington's 14-2 run, which included 10 unanswered points during one stretch.
"I thought Pridmore was very efficient offensively," Thompson said. "He scored a bunch of points on not a lot of shots and drew a lot of attention, which opened it up for Valenzuela. Things will get a lot easier for us on offense if we have more games like this where others step up and score."
Huntsville (5-3) defeated Farmington 48-33 at home on Nov. 27, but Eagles first-year coach Grant Myrick said a different Cardinals team took the floor Thursday.
"Their zone (defense) was more effective and we couldn't make a basket," Myrick said. "The defense looked better. Their offense looked better. We knew they would shoot better over here at their place and they did, and we gave them way too many second-chance points."
Due to the threat of inclement weather moving the classic up a day, Farmington (5-3) will play its seventh game in nine days when it hosts Hot Springs Lakeside at 7 p.m. today. Huntsville's boys open the final day of action against Cedarville at 4 p.m. while Berryville's girls take on Cedarville at 5:30 p.m.
In other games on Thursday, Cedarville escaped with a 65-63 double-overtime win against Cedarville while Farmington's junior high girls and junior high boys defeated Springdale Southwest 52-22 and 49-17, respectively.
Sports on 12/07/2018