Warren County Middle School’s sixth-grade boys couldn’t overcome a scoreless first quarter on Monday night.

The Pioneers played a scrappy game after falling behind 17-2 at one point. But despite a much better WCMS effort the final three quarters, Prescott South was able to capture a 35-20 victory in McMinnville.

Pioneer Cameron Holder caught fire figuratively in the second quarter, scoring all 8 of his points to lead the team. Maddoxx Baker followed with 6 points.

For Prescott South, Maddox Copeland was the game-high scorer with 15. Abram Phillips added 13.

Everything looked to be leaning the wrong way for the Pioneers in the early going. Prescott South was up 10-0 after the opening quarter and would expand its lead as the second quarter began.

Prescott used an aggressive half-court trap that created turnovers on the perimeter and bottled up the Pioneer offense.

But Cameron Holder decided enough was enough midway through the second quarter. He drove to the basket, pulled down rebounds in traffic, and scored all 8 points for the Pioneers in the quarter.

It was a 17-8 game at the half.

Things got interesting when Oswaldo Duenas began the second half with a basket for the Pioneers and suddenly it was a 17-10 game.

But WCMS wouldn’t score again in the third as Prescott built a 25-10 lead. The Pioneers mounted a late rally in the final minutes, but they were too far behind to cut the lead to single digits.

Rounding out the scoring for WCMS all with 2 points each were John Brock, Duenas and Jaustin Herron.