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Prairie Ridge fills it up from 3 against Grant

More chips and salsa, please.

Fans who have been attending Prairie Ridge boys basketball games this season are getting their fill of free chips and salsa at the local Chili's restaurant in Crystal Lake.

As part of a special season-long promotion called the "3-Point Challenge," fans are rewarded at Chili's each time Prairie Ridge hits at least six 3-pointers in a game.

On Saturday, fans were invited to fill their bellies again.

Prairie Ridge drained eight 3-pointers en route to a 74-54 nonconference victory over visiting Grant.

"We just like to attack and get to the rim and that opens up our 3-point shots," said Prairie Ridge senior guard Chris Bradshaw, who had 11 points on a team-high three 3-pointers. "We like to kick it out. We're a good 3-point shooting team. We shoot together in the summer, so that helps. We're just knocking them down right now."

The Wolves are also throwing back the chips and salsa together, too. On the nights of home games when they hit six or more 3-pointers, they take advantage of their own hard work and they go to Chili's for their post-game snack as well.

"We go and it's really fun, it's a great sponsor," said Bradshaw, who hit a season-high six 3-pointers himself in a game earlier this season, single-handedly enacting the free chips and salsa promotion. "The fans really like it. (The student fans) are always cheering and going nuts when we make 3's."

Of the 15 games Prairie Ridge (12-3) has played this season, the 3-point challenge has been met at least 10 times.

"In the past, it's been a challenge to get the six 3-pointers (for the promotion). This year, we're a 3-point shooting team," said Prairie Ridge coach Corky Card, who got double-figures out of four players, paced by Brian Dorn with 13 points. "I would say six is a lot of 3's in a high school game, but usually we're hovering around that.

"Eight is really a lot and we've been at 11 or 12 a couple times this season. We just have a lot of kids who can shoot the 3, and two kids (Chris Bradshaw and Payton Otto) who are really outstanding at it. I would say of the 16 kids on our team, 13 have the green light to shoot it from 3-point range."

Interestingly, Grant (6-7) also hit eight 3-pointers, led by Ben Kusiak, James Mobley and Jack Gorden, each of whom had two 3-pointers apiece.

But the Bulldogs couldn't overcome their carelessness with the ball. They turned the ball over 19 times, often against Prairie Ridge's full-court press. The Wolves, which sped out to a 21-8 lead by the end of the first quarter, are forcing an average of 21 turnovers a game with their pressure.

"We've been better lately with turnovers, like 12, 13, 14, so this was a terrible game for us with turnovers," Grant coach Wayne Bosworth said. "We couldn't handle their 1-2-2 press. We couldn't execute a press break properly. We struggled. They forced us completely out of what we wanted to do."

One bright spot for Grant was the play of junior forward John Kerr, who scored a team-high 9 points, mostly on some pretty jumpers from the high post.

The Bulldogs also got 8 points apiece out of both Kusiak and Kyle Dupree.

"We just looked sluggish out there," Kerr said. "We just weren't playing with intensity. We have to come out with more effort. Too many turnovers, shooting too many bad shots, too many bad decisions. It just wasn't good. If we can cut down our turnovers, we can win some more ballgames."

Prairie Ridge also got double-figure scoring out of Kyle Loeding (12 points) and Otto (11 points).

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