BASKETBALL: No. 1 goes down in T-Town
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[With only a single loss on their resume, Andy Fehrenbacher's top-ranked Teutopolis squad may have taken a look at Pinckneyville's 44-40 loss to Vandalia last week and thought that they would have minimal difficulty in dismissing a 9-5 team making a two-hour bus ride.
And when the Wooden Shoes made a 13-0 run in the game's third quarter to move ahead by nine points, the capacity home crowd may have breathed a sigh of relief, thinking they had gotten away with a rough start and rebounded just in time to make this game the blowout they anticipated it to be.
And, surely, when Pinckneyville's leading scorer Kyle Lamb fouled out without recording a single point early in the fourth quarter and the Panthers still trailing by nine, that would be the nail in the coffin.
Nobody told Bob Waggoner and his team that's how things were supposed to go, however, and the Panthers outscored Teutopolis 12-2 in the last 5:32 of the ballgame to upset the top-ranked team in the latest Associated Press poll for Class 2A in their own gym 37-36 on Saturday night.
"We played through some foul trouble, we played through a couple turnovers early, we had a lead and they made a big run at us to start the third quarter," said Waggoner. "Give all the credit to our kids, their determination, and their ability to keep hanging in there and giving us an opportunity to win."
Christian Shopinski drove to the basket with time ticking down, missed a shot, then grabbed the rebound for a put-back with 2.9 seconds remaining in the game to give Pinckneyville a one-point lead, and the Wooden Shoes missed a desperation buzzer-beater after having the length of the floor to go.
"This is the type of game that is, maybe, going to propell us to bigger and better things," Waggoner said. "It's a game of runs, that's high school athletics. We got the last run."
The Panthers also got the first run. Already ahead 6-3, Hunter Queen drained a three-pointer with 3:31 left in the opening quarter to begin an 11-0 Pinckneyville run while the Panthers' defense held T-Town to only a pair of first-quarter field goals.
"Our switch to some zone and some trap rattled them a little bit, got them a little bit shaky," Waggoner said. "We'd been working on that this week, a little extra time, it's something we want to use a little more and mix some defenses up a little bit."
The Shoes responded, trimming the lead to six at halftime, then making their big run in the third quarter as the Panthers began to fight foul trouble.
Bo Blievernicht brought Teutopolis within two, then he and Lamb were called for a double foul, the third personal for each, with 5:50 to go in the period.
Lamb then picked up his fourth foul on a charge less than a minute later, and the Wooden Shoes continued to mount their attack.
All-stater Nick Schumacher scored six straight points to give T-town their first lead, then Derek Thompson threw one down on a fast break after a steal. Schumaker's free throw with just over a minute left in the period completed a 13-0 run for the Shoes, who led 30-21, a turnaround of 23 points from the Panthers' biggest lead.
Lamb picked up his fifth foul on Pinckneyville's second possession of the fourth quarter and finished the game scoreless, and the Panthers trailed 34-25 when momentum shifted for the final time.
"Tonight we really just tried to talk them through it and let them understand we could stay in the game if we just settled ourselves back down," said Waggoner. "I thought offensively tonight our spacing was very good, and our screening was better and our composure was better."
Bryant Shute and Queen each made 1-of-2 from the line, then C.J. Opp connected on a three with 3:53 to go in the game. Thompson put in two free throws for the Shoes with 2:45 to go, but they would be the last points Teutopolis would score in the contest.
Queen sank a three, then drove for a layup after a T-town turnover with 1:33 remaining and Fehrenbacher called time to stop the bleeding. Blievernicht opened the door further, however, turning it over and setting up Shopinski's dramatic put-back.
"They're pressuring us and he drives it, he gets shut off, he takes the shot and then he has the mental toughness to still go get it again," Waggoner said.
"Anytime you play up here, whether it's the number one team or not, you know it's going to be a battle. I thought tonight that our kids, even though they were probably outmatched physically, they weren't outmatched in the desire in their hearts, and I thought that was a big difference tonight."
Both teams shot just 38% from the field and neither had a player score more than 13 points.
Queen's 13 were a team-high for Pinckeyville, Steve Brueggeman added 10, Shopinski and Payton Nippe 4, Opp and Shute 3. Schumacher led T-town with 13 points, Thompson had 9.
The Panthers (10-5) put their six-year long winning streak at the Benton Invitational Tournament on the line starting tonight against the host Rangers at 9:00 p.m., the first of three 9:00 p.m. games during the week for Pinckneyville.