PCHS Girls Basketball: Lady Panthers First at HamCo, Again

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville Community High School's Girls Basketball pulled off a "three-peat" Saturday night, winning its third consecutive Lady Foxes Invitational Tournament title.

Finishing a 4-0 week, the Lady Panthers edged past host Hamilton County 59-55 in the tourney's final game after beginning the weekend with a 78-37 rout of Gallatin County.

"It was good to see us find a way to win in an extremely hostile environment," PCHS coach Alan Engelhardt said. "It was a very physical game (vs. HamCo) and we battled through a lot of contact."

Emily Miller and Katrina Henson combined to hit six key free throws down the stretch as Pinckneyville held back several Hamilton COunty surges.

Pinckneyville held a 42-37 lead as the final quarter began and saw HamCo whittle that margin down to just one point.

Miller paced the Lady Panthers with 21 points, seven rebounds, eight assists and four steals. Mo Ramsey had 11 points off the bench with Henson adding seven and Kortney Crawford six.

"Winning our third straight tournament title here was a nice accomplishment," said Engelhardt. "Now its time to head into the regular season and see if we can continue to improve."

Against Gallatin County, The Lady Panthers raced ahead 24-4 as the first quarter ended and were never headed

Miller (17), Maddy Keith (11), Taylor Kuhnert (11) and Crawford (10) all scored in double digits. Cheyenne Conner added seven points.

Miller, Keith and Taylor Cicardi were named to the All-Tournament team.