COLUMBIA - By now, you probably know the numbers when it comes to Prairie Home, but it's worth rehashing.
6: The number of players on the team.
35: The enrollment of high school students at Prairie Home R-5 School.
280: The population of Prairie Home.
On Saturday in the Class 1 girls third-place game, the brightly-lit numbers of the Mizzou Arena scoreboard showed a 61-54 South Iron win.
So while Prairie Home came up empty in its two games at the Show-Me Showdown, the team's fourth-place finish will still go down as an achievement, not just for the team and the school, but for the community.
"It's an honor to come from such a small school and come here and finish fourth," Prairie Home senior Shianne Rhorer said. "No one thought we were going to be here. It was a heck of a way to end my senior year."
In what was a battle of Panthers, Rhorer and fellow senior Rachel Distler simply willed Prairie Home back into the game after South Iron carried an 11-point lead into halftime.
Distler had 24 points and Rhorer scored 23. The two accounted for all but three of Prairie Home's points during the second-half rally.
After spending the third quarter chipping away at the deficit, Prairie Home tied it early in the fourth on a Distler jumper. South Iron would go on to answer with four straight points and never relinquish the lead thanks to the late free-throw shooting of Ashley Mickan, who finished with 26 points to lead all scorers.
"My teammates were finding me, and I had good open looks from 3," Mickan said. "And I was driving to the basket and getting fouled."
In the first half, Prairie Home had a slow start offensively for the second day in a row. The defensive end was a struggle as well with South Iron pounding the offensive glass early.
"I think we came out a little timid again," Prairie Home coach Dalton Armontrout said. "The second half and third quarter was a lot better. In the fourth, I think maybe we ran out of gas there at the end."
Much of the offensive uptick for Prairie Home was owed to Distler. A day after hitting only one shot from the field, the senior drilled five 3-pointers. She started the game with one to get her squad off and rolling and fittingly, ended the game with one to close out her career.
"I felt like if I came out and made my first shot, it was going to be so much easier to keep shooting," Distler said. " I really wanted to redeem myself with this performance, and I feel like I did that. I felt way more aggressive today, and I think part of that was because I knew it'd be my last game."
Rhorer's final stat line included 12 boards to finish with a double-double. Among the Final Four teams in the Class 1 girls tournament, Rhorer entered as the leading scorer with 25.6 points per game. She had a productive weekend, averaging just under 20 per game against the stifling defenses of Walnut Grove and South Iron.
"It was a lot of fun," Rhorer said. "We've had a lot of team bonding, and it was an honor just to be here. We take a lot of pride in it, especially with just six of us. One of us was a cheerleader, one of us hadn't played in two years and one of us was a freshman."
At some point in the next year, a banner will be raised in the Prairie Home gym and the names Shianne Rhorer, Rachel Distler, Kristen Peterson, Elizabeth Fairchild, Kurstin Leonard and Ashlyn Twenter will be etched or sewn permanently somewhere inside the school.
The banner will be a reminder of history, and the players and coach will be able to reflect on the journey that was by simply glancing up.
"I've learned a lot," Armontrout said. "I asked a lot of these girls. They practiced two hours a day, they watched film, and they came in during the summer to lift weights three times a week. I was glad to be there for them and to coach them. It's very special."