Maurice Arrington picked a great time to get the first dunk of his high school basketball career.

It helped Washington win a ballgame.

Arrington collected a thunderous dunk on a sweet feed from Keion Wills with 69 seconds left Friday night to help the Warriors trim Prairie, 61-56, in a Mississippi Valley Conference game at Prairie.

Washington was clinging to a precarious 54-51 lead when Wills began the big play by driving down the lane.

"It was late in the game and I just wanted to make a play," said Wills. "I made a move and my big guy took it to the rim and the crowd went crazy."

Arrington, a 6-foot-7 senior, broke toward the basket when he saw Wills driving down the lane.

"I just saw him make a nice move on the guard and I saw my man slide out to him and I knew I was getting it from there," said Arrington. "We needed something and I went up and flushed it."

There was nobody around and Arrington could have made a safe play by simply laying the ball in the basket, but he wanted to make a statement.

"I was pretty confident," he said. "I'd never gotten a dunk in a game and I thought that was the best time. It was definitely something to remember."

The dunk gave the Warriors a 56-51 lead in the intensely played game. "I'm just happy he made the dunk," said Coach Adam Sanchez. "It was a big exclamation point."

Washington (5-5, 3-4) bolted to a 31-14 lead midway through the second quarter and appeared headed to a comfortable victory, but the scrappy Prairie Hawks began forcing turnovers and attacking the basket with abandon.

Prairie (5-6, 2-6) scored the last 14 points of the first half to pull within 31-28 at intermission, but the Hawks did not stop there. Prairie scored the first six points of the second half to finish a 20-0 run and grab a 34-31 lead on a coast-to-coast layup by JoJo Simpson.

Washington responded with a mini 7-0 run for a 38-34 lead and the fight to the finish began.

Prairie suffered a tough break early in the fourth period when Jalen Rima picked up his fourth foul with 7:52 left in the game. Prairie Coach Jeremy Rickertsen sent a substitute to the scorer's table, but it was too late and Rima stayed in the game.

As bad luck would have it, Rima picked up his fifth foul with 7:19 left to play and took his 17 points to the bench for the rest of the night. Rima, a four-sport athlete at Prairie, sparked the Hawks with his aggressive drives to the basket and spirited play.

Prairie stayed in the game without him, however, but the Hawks suffered another bad break when Simpson fouled out with 2:01 left and Washington clinging to a 53-51 lead.

Freshman Hunter Strait made one free throw to give Washington a 54-51 edge, then Arrington's pivotal dunk after a Prairie turnover made it 56-51.

Prairie missed a 3-pointer and the Hawks fouled Wills, who hit two free throws with 46.3 seconds left to give the Warriors a 58-51 lead.

Mitch Lorenz hit a 3-pointer to pull Prairie within 59-56 with 24.2 seconds remaining. Jared Printy swished two free throws for Washington to finish the scoring at 61-56.

Washington and Prairie are both vastly improved from a year ago and they combined to play an entertaining game. Sanchez feels his club is beginning to mature and find ways to win games.

"Sometimes I go to bed at night wondering if I can coach a lick, because we've got a ton of talent," said Sanchez, relieved to get the tough victory. "We're starting to mesh, we're starting to jell and play a little better together."

Printy led Washington with 14 points. Drew Hoeger added 12 points for the Warriors. Arrington and Wills finished with eight points apiece.

Rima led Prairie with his 17 markers. Simpson, who has committed to play football at Upper Iowa, finished with 12 points. Lorenz scored 10 points.

WASHINGTON (61): Kramer 2 0-0 5, Strait 1 1-2 3, Hoeger 4 3-6 12, Wills 1 6-8 8, Richmond 1 0-0 2, Arrington 3 1-2 8, Moore 2 1-3 5, Printy 4 5-5 14, Williams 2 0-2 4, Dawson 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 17-28 61.

PRAIRIE (56): Clark 0 0-0 0, Fisher 2 5-6 9, Drahos 1 4-4 6, Brown 0 0-0 0, Rima 5 7-10 17, Boldt 1 0-0 2, Lorenz 4 0-0 10, Oxley 0 0-0 0, Simpson 5 0-0 12. Totals 18 16-20 56.

Halftime - Washington 31, Prairie 28. 3-point goals - Washington (Kramer 1, Hoeger 1, Arrington 1, Printy 1), Prairie 4 (Lorenz 2, Simpson 2). Fouled out - Rima, Simpson.