BASKETBALL: Twelve in a row for Lady Panthers
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Taylor Cicardi scored 20 or more points for the second straight game and Pinckneyville outlasted Anna-Jonesboro 52-32 at Thomas Gymnasium on Wednesday, the twelfth consecutive win for head coach Alan Engelhardt's Lady Panthers.
"This was a game that we felt like we were in control the entire game, but we just couldn't shake them until the end," said Engelhardt. "We defended pretty well, I thought we took away their drives, which is what hurt us the first time we played."
The Lady Panthers jumped on top 11-5 after the first quarter but couldn't any real seperation until the second half.
"Offensively, we had a few good runs, but we weren't really consistent because our movement wasn't consistent enough;" Englehardt said, "often times we were too stagnant. But we found different ways to score inside even though we didn't shoot the ball very well from the perimeter."
PCHS was red-hot inside the perimeter, however, going 19 for 31 on two-point field goals in the game and pulling away with a 15-5 fourth quarter.
Cicardi was 9-of-12 from the floor for PCHS and led all scorers with 20 points. Maddy Keith added a dozen, Heather McDaniel and Katrina Henson both finished with 5, Dani Jenkel and Mo Ramsey 3, and Lindsey Winter and Taylor Kuhnert 2.
The Lady Panthers (16-4, 4-2) moved into a tie for second place in the Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference Mississippi Division with Sparta following their win and the Lady Bulldogs' loss to Du Quoin on Tuesday evening. Both teams trail once-beaten Nashville (15-1, 6-0) for the conference lead by two games.
PCHS now heads to West Frankfort on Saturday to begin play in the West Frankfor Mid-Winter Classic against Herrin at 11:00 a.m.
The Lady Panthers will also face West Frankfort (Tuesday, January 18 at 7:30 p.m.) and Sesser-Valier (Thursday, January 20 at 6:00 p.m.) during the event.