BASKETBALL: Lady Panthers rout A-J
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville opened up conference play with a road victory, storming past Anna-Jonesboro 64-46 last night behind a game-high 19 points from senior forward Taylor Cicardi.
"This was by far the hardest we played this year," said PCHS girls' head coach Alan Engelhardt. "We made a decision to try to rotate eleven girls in so that we would get out and pressure the ball better than we have all year, and to the girls credit, they bought in and played their butts off."
A-J led 12-8 after one quarter of play, but the Lady Panthers' defense eventually began to wear down their host.
"I thought A-J was the most talented team we have played, but we wore them out at the end of the second and through the third quarters, getting stops and in turn getting some easy baskets," said Engelhardt.
All 11 girls who played in the game for PCHS got in the scoring column. Behind Cicardi's big night, Mo Ramsey and Katrina Henson each added 8 points, Heather McDaniel 6, Maddy Keith and Taylor Kuhnert 5 each, Dani Jenkel 4, Kortney Crawford 3, Lindsey Winter, Tyler Flowers and Haley Simpson each finished with 2.
"We started to share the ball better on offense tonight too, not relying so much on one-on-one victories, but finding the open cutter or penetrating into the gaps and kicking to someone spotting up," Engelhardt said.
"If we can continue to guard and play hard like we did tonight and keep up the unselfish attitudes, we have the chance to continue to have success.
The Lady Panthers (3-2, 1-0) return to the floor on Thursday at Benton (7:45 p.m. - varsity).