BASKETBALL: Cicardi leads PCHS to victory in opener
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Taylor Cicardi poured in 21 points and Pinckneyville won their season opener 57-33 over Zeigler-Royalton-Christopher last night to begin the Hamilton County Round-Robin tournament for both teams.
The Lady Panthers put themselves in trouble in the first quarter, fouling a total of 12 times and giving up 8 points at the line during the period, but still managed to lead 14-12 after one.
With many of their starters sitting in foul trouble, Pinckneyville's bench stepped it up in the second quarter to build the Lady Panthers' 27-15 halftime lead.
"Katrina Henson played a very solid game at the point for us and really helped slow us down to run some offense in the second half," said PCHS head coach Alan Engelhardt.
"We have a few things to work on, such as playing with our feet and not reaching as much, getting better check-outs on defense, and not pressing too much on offense, but we played hard, we got good shots, we pulled 46 rebounds, and once we stopped fouling we defended pretty well."
The 28 turnovers committed on offense kept the Lady Panthers from having an even more lopsided victory.
Cicardi also led PCHS in rebounds with 12, Mo Ramsey chipped in with 9 boards.
Henson joined Cicardi in double figures with 10 points, Ramsey had 7, Maddy Keith 6, Heather McDaniel 5, Haley Simpson 5, Taylor Kuhnert 2 and Dani Jenkel 1.
The Lady Panthers are back in action at the Hamilton County tournament today, taking on Fairfield at 6:00 p.m.
PCHS (1-0) also plays Friday at 6:00 p.m. (vs. Galatin Co.) and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. (vs. Hamilton County).