BASKETBALL: Lady Panthers complete sweep at Herrin
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Herrin's Lady Tigers beat the buzzer once, but couldn't beat it twice Thursday night.
Haley Elders, who scored her 1,000th career point the night before, hit just her second 3-pointer of the season at the buzzer in regulation to send the championship game of the Herrin Holiday Hoops tournament into overtime, but Pinckneyville surged ahead behind Taylor Cicardi in the extra session and held on for a 45-43 win and the event's title when Stephanie Diaz had her 3-point attempt just before the final horn roll around the rim, go halfway down and spin out.
Cicardi, who was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player, and Maddy Keith both scored 14 points to lead the Lady Panthers (12-4) to their eighth straight win. Both had consecutive baskets in the overtime session after the Lady Tigers took the first lead on a pair of Abby Horn free throws.
Pinckneyville's pressure defense was key throughout the ballgame as the Lady Tigers committed 24 turnovers on the night. It allowed the Lady Panthers to complete a five-game sweep of the tournament to become outright champions.
"We were worried to death about the energy level of pressing with having five games in four nights and I thought we did a tremendous job of gutting down and guarding on the full court when we needed to," said Pinckneyville coach Alan Engelhardt. "They have some kids who can score when they get it inside so we didn't want them to go there.
"We were reaching early and picked up fouls on our primary ball defenders but the other kids stepped up and battled and when we got those girls back in the third quarter we were able to cause some havoc."
Vienna finished the tournament in second place with a 4-1 mark, while Herrin (12-6) took third at 3-2 although had the third tiebreaking edge to defend its tournament title if it had beat Pinckneyville.
"It's one we hated to let get away," said Herrin coach Bill Green. "It should have been won in regulation. But Pinckneyville is a good ballclub. I thought we've had a pretty good tournament and I thought we did a good job defensively but they did a good job, too. Their pressure really never let us get into our offense because our guards never could get set."
Herrin's brief lead in overtime was its first since midway through the third quarter, when in similar fashion Cicardi and Keith put together a five-point flurry, with Keith's 3-pointer from the right arc giving Pinckneyville a 26-24 lead heading into the fourth period.
"Maddy is such a good shooter and finally got a couple to drop and got some confidence going," Engelhardt said. "We're so much better when have that inside-outside punch like that."
Another basket by Keith, followed by a three-point play and two more free throws from Dani Jenkel, part of her 11 points, gave the Lady Panthers a 34-28 lead with 5:52 remaining. Herrin answered with its own run as a pair of free throws by Elders and buckets from Horn and Olivia Caldwell knotted it up at 34 with 2:10 left.
Pinckneyville allowed Herrin to stay close by going 8-of-14 from the line in the fourth quarter, but the lead was three at 39-36 after a Jenkel split a pair of foul shots with 13.8 seconds left. Elders rebounded the second and Caldwell went in for a two-point shot and missed, but the ball went out of bounds to the Lady Tigers under their basket with 1.2 ticks left.
Caldwell threw in an inbounds pass to Elders at the top of the key and her 3-pointer, her second of the week and season combined, swished through the net to set off an eruption on the orange-clad side of Memorial Gymnasium.
"What a great shot," Green said. "And the one at the end Diaz took, she had a good look and I thought it was down."
Cicardi led the Lady Panthers in scoring throughout the week and was an easy choice for tournament MVP. She was joined on the all-tournament team by teammate Keith and Herrin's Elders and Horn, as well as Murphysboro's Chelsi Gillespie, Du Quoin's Rebekah Maddox and Jessica Hirsch, Vienna's Brooke Childress and Hannah McGinnis and Cobden's Beka Russell and Kayla Quertermous.
"Taylor is such a battler," Engelhardt said. "She was frustrated with her free throws and was battling some demons at the line but I think she was a little fatigued. She fought and fought and she's outsized a lot underneath but she moves her feet and she fights. And that's all you can ask."
Lindsey Winter and Haley Simpson finished with 2 points each for PCHS, Heather McDaniel and Katrina Henson each added one to round out the scoring for the Lady Panthers.
In the early session Thursday, the Lady Tigers used a 13-2 run in the second quarter to wallop Cobden, 47-20, with Elders the only player for either team to reach double figures with 15 points.
Pinckneyville defeated Murphysboro, 45-32, while Vienna rolled past Du Quoin, 54-40.
Vienna then hammered Cobden, 53-31, in the night session to give itself a chance at the title.
For the Lady Panthers against Murphysboro, Cicardi led the way with 10 points, Mo Ramsey added 9, Jenkel 6, Simpson 5, Henson 4, Keith 3, and McDaniel, Dani Schoenbacher, Taylor Kuhnert and Katelyn Mayer each finished with 2.
"Our bench did a great job of stepping up and contributing both points and defensive energy and allowing us to rest some of the girls we had been playing a lot of minutes," said Engelhardt.
Pinckneyville returns to action on Tuesday at Carlyle.
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Doug Daniels of the Du Quoin Evening Call also contributed to this story.
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