PRESCOTT — Uriah Tenette scored 23 points, big man Zane Gaul added a double-double and Prescott avenged an early January loss to rival Bradshaw Mountain with a 68-50 victory in front of a raucous crowd Thursday night.

It is the sixth straight victory for the No. 8-ranked Badgers (16-2, 8-1 4A Grand Canyon), which last lost to this very same Bears club Jan. 9, 60-48.

The 6-foot-10 sophomore center Gaul scored 23 points on 10 of 14 shooting, grabbed 11 rebounds, dished five assists and recorded three blocks.

“I always try to play 100 percent the whole game, not let any pressure get to me. I think it worked out tonight. In the end, I played the whole game 100 percent,” Gaul said, while making sure to tip his cap to the Prescott student section for Thursday night’s turnout.

“The atmosphere was great,” Gaul said.

Prescott head coach Travis Stedman lauded his big man, pointing out his ability to see the whole floor.

“He’s such a good passer, so we want to take advantage of that,” Stedman said. “But, he also decided to be a big boy tonight and go get a couple [of buckets for himself]. He’s probably the best big guy in the region, probably the best big kid in northern Arizona, maybe more so, and only being a sophomore, he showed it tonight.”

Gaul was averaging 13.9 points and 9.6 rebounds per game entering Thursday’s contest.

OTHER BADGER STANDOUTS

Prescott’s other half of the dynamic duo, Tenette, had four assists and four steals to go along with his 23 points, which he put together on 9 of 13 shooting, including a 5 for 6 mark from the free-throw line.

The 5-foot-9, 155-pound sophomore averages a tick over 25 points per game this season, 4.7 assists and 4.2 steals.

Jake Hilton added 15 points and five rebounds for the Badgers in the win.

BEARS FIGHT BACK EARLY

In the first quarter, Prescott jumped out to an early lead, but No. 3-ranked Bradshaw Mountain (19-3, 8-1 4A Grand Canyon) fought back to take a 20-19 lead after Caden Reed hit a buzzer beater to end the period.

The second quarter was a different story, however, as Prescott used a 24-8 run to take a 43-27 lead at halftime and never trailed again.

First-year Bradshaw Mountain head coach Cain Atkinson said all the credit goes to Prescott.

“They did a great job of forcing us to play their type of game, which was a track meet. I don’t feel like defensively for us we did a good job, I felt we were stagnant. I thought that we were slow,” Atkinson said. “Offensively, we didn’t run any type of offense.”

He added later, “Again, they baited us into playing their style, which is running, running, running. We didn’t execute on offense, we weren’t very tough. Pretty much from the first quarter on. We started to doubt ourselves, make excuses, we started not being as tough as we preach about.”

Mason Hunt led the Bears with 16 points, while Amari Lawrence had 14 points on two 3-pointers and was a perfect 4 for 4 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.

UP NEXT

Prescott has four games on the regular season schedule remaining, the first a road trip to Lee Williams (10-9, 1-5 4A Grand Canyon) on Friday, Jan. 27.

Stedman said it was a “must-win” against the Bears.

“We want that region title and we want to hang that banner. We had to beat Bradshaw,” Stedman said.

Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.

Bradshaw Mountain has three games left on the regular season, starting with a road trip to Flagstaff (4-18, 1-7 4A Grand Canyon) on Friday. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.

Brian M. Bergner Jr. has covered professional, collegiate and high school sports for more than 20 years. Follow him on Twitter @AzPreps365Brian. Have a story idea? Email Brian at bbergner@azpreps365.com.