BASKETBALL: Lady Panthers slip past Vienna behind Cicardi's 23 points
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville improved to 8-4 overall and 1-0 at the Herrin Holiday Hoops girls basketball tournament on Monday, slipping past Vienna 63-57 behind 23 points from senior Taylor Cicardi.
"We did a good job of finding ways to win; we won the rebounding battle, and after the first few minutes we got most of the loose balls," said PCHS girls head basketball coach Alan Engelhardt. "If we can get consistent defense and consistent stops, I think our offense is good enough to compete with many people. We just need to be consistent with our defensive effort for four quarters."
The Lady Panthers turned the ball over on 8 of their first 9 possessions and trailed 10-3, but rebounded to finish the opening quarter on a 10-0 run.
Carly Childress scored 11 of her team-high 22 points in the third quarter as Vienna trailed by just one, but Pinckneyville got things going on the defensive end late to stretch the lead to 56-47 with two minutes to play.
"We could have done a better job of finishing the the game in a few situations, but that is something we need to go back through at practice and do a better job as coaches of helping the girls understand situations," said Engelhardt.
Lindsey Winter added 9 points for Pinckneyville, Maddy Keith and Dani Jenkel each finished with 8, Heather McDaniel 6, Mo Ramsey 4, Katrina Henson 3 and Taylor Kuhnert 2.
"Dani Jenkel and Heather McDaniel did a pretty good job of defending the perimeter and I thought Maddy Keith and Mo Ramsey were really good as help-side defenders," said Engelhardt. "Offensively, Maddy did a nice job of initiating the offense against the trap and Taylor Cicardi did a great job of finishing down low."
The Lady Panthers (8-4, 1-0 at Herrin) are at Herrin again on Tuesday to face Du Quoin at 8:00 p.m. Pinckneyville won an earlier meeting this year with the Lady Indians at Thomas Gymnasium at PCHS by the score of 54-35.
"The nice thing to see is that after one night we still control our own destiny and we knocked off the team that was probably the tournament favorite going in," Englehardt said. "Now the test is to see if we can continue to compete for another three days."