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BASKETBALL: Pinckneyville adds to B.I.T. legacy

Posted January 23, 2011 10:00 pm

Doug Daniels

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[For the seventh consecutive year, Pinckneyville brought home the first place trophy from the Benton Invitational Tournament with a perfect 5-0 record, capping off this year's run to the championship by defeating Okawville 54-47 on Saturday night.

"I thought tonight was probably our best game (of the tournament)" said Panthers' head coach Bob Waggoner. "I thought overall we were patient offensively, really moved the ball well, played through each other and were unselfish."

The victory is the 39th in a row overall for Pincknevyille in Rich Herrin Gymnasium, including B.I.T., shootout and IHSA postseason games, and the Panthers have not lost in Benton since January of 2004.

"I think everybody wants to beat us, they want to stop us from winning the championship and our guys look forward to that challenge," Waggoner commented. "If you're a competitive person, that's what you want. We're used to that throughout the season, everybody wants to beat Pinckneyville, and our guys understand that and that's why we take pride in the effort that we give."

Okawville came out with maximum effort, leading 13-10 after the first quarter as Taylor Walton buried a three and Jacob Brammeier beat the buzzer with a layup.

"Okawville was giving tremendous effort, both teams were guarding each other really well," Waggoner said. "They were trying to take away a lot of our movements and were really doing a good job of doubling on Kyle (Lamb). Give Kyle a lot of credit, he was finding the open man and eventually those shots are going to go down."

With the game knotted at 16-16, Hunter Queen's three-pointer gave the Panthers a lead that they never let go of with 3:53 to go in the half, but the Rockets were hanging around down 23-20 with sixteen minutes left to play.

Christian Shopinski and Dylan Hardin hit big three-pointers in the third, Hardin's putting the Panthers on top 35-27, but Walton and Jeremy Weeke got Okawville back within four with deep balls.

Pinckneyville led by only three when Lamb drove to the hoop for two with 5:10 to go in the game then drew a charge on the Rockets' Brammeier on the next play.

Steve Brueggman then completed a conventional three-point play seconds later and the Panthers had a 46-38 lead.

Brammeier added another three with 3:40 to go, but the Pinckneyville defense refused to let the Rockets get a score when they really needed it.

"I thought defensively, it was tough coming back on short rest, but at the end whenever we had to get stops, we limited their dribble drive and really made them take some tougher shots," Waggoner said.

Pinckneyville's starting five and top couple of reserves all received extended rest in the 2:00 p.m. game as the Panthers ran away from Hamilton County, something Waggoner says helped out against the Rockets.

"It helped getting some of those guys off their legs a little bit (earlier today), especially with a short turnaround," Waggoner said. "We seemed a little fresher at the end than Okawville did."

Lamb led the Panthers with 16 points, Brueggeman added 15, and the two Pinckeyville seniors were named to the 2011 B.I.T. all-tournament team for their efforts this week.

Shopinski added 10 points, Queen 6, Payton Nippe 4 and Dylan Hardin 3. Weeke led Okawville with 18 points.

After the game, Waggoner fueled speculation that Pinckneyville may be shopping around for a different mid-winter tournament location following the Panthers' seventh straight unbeaten B.I.T. crown.

"We have a lot of people that are pursuing us and wanting us to come to other tournaments," said Waggoner. "There's always a possibility that we may look in a different direction."

"I feel like we got better this week, I think (the B.I.T. is) a good trip for our fans. Overall, it's teams we don't normally play, but at the same time we're always going to look to improve our program and see what's out there to make us better."

Pinckneyville (15-5) travels to Anna-Jonesboro on Friday night before hosting the Panther Basketball Showcase this Saturday at Thomas Gymnasium where they will meet Roxana at 7:30 p.m.

The Panthers' J-V squad will meet Steeleville at 12:15 p.m. on Saturday at St. Bruno's gym.

<u>PCHS survives close call with Carlyle</u>

On Friday night, the Panthers needed clutch free throws late in the game to take care of Carlyle 44-38 despite leading the entire game.

"We have talked over and over again about offensively being a threat and not playing side-to-side, scared, and it seems like when the pressure gets turned up late, we have some guys that quit playing aggressive, they play passive," said Waggoner. "You've got to gut through that and play a little bit more intelligently."

Brueggeman hit 7-of-8 free throws in the closing minute and finished with 15 points, also grabbing a key rebound with 15 seconds to play after a Carlyle miss to preserve the victory.

Pinckneyville shot just 37% (13-for-35) and committed 14 turnovers in the game, but knocked down 15-of-19 at the charity stripe and held the Indians to just 11-for-35 (31%) from the floor.

Lamb also finished with 15 points to tie Brueggeman for the team-high. Queen added 6, Shute 5 and Nippe 3.

"(Carlyle is) so hard to guard because they spread you and they all can shoot it, and they're small," Waggoner said. "That's an advantage, that's why Lamb and Brueggeman can score in the post on them, but at the same time it's a tough defensive matchup because they're constantly trying to break you down off the dribble and kicking for threes."

<u>Panthers dominate Ham-Co</u>

After a dreadful opening quarter that ended with the two teams tied 5-5, Pinckneyville dominated the final 24 minutes of the game and throttled Hamilton County 60-22 on Saturday afternoon to wrap up the B.I.T. championship based on their head-to-head victory with Benton this past Monday.

The ugly first period mercifully ended after a total of just five made free throws and two made field goals by the two clubs (2-of-16).

"I just think both teams were adjusting to a Saturday afternoon game, their fourth game, really trying to get used to the physicality of the game and how it was going to be called and how each team was going to play," said Waggoner.

From there, the Panthers got things going on offense and began to pull away immediately.

Shopinski nailed a three-pointer to start the second period and would add another a couple minutes later to put PCHS up 14-5, and the Panthers extended their lead by going 10-for-12 at the line in the second quarter to carry a 26-9 lead into break. The Foxes made good on only 2-of-15 field goals in the opening half.

"We had talked in our walkthrough this morning about pressuring them getting out and we weren't doing that," said Waggoner. "We were playing back instead of going and getting them and once we did we created some turnovers and transition offense opportunities."

Shute added a pair of three-pointers near the end of the third period and Queen tossed in another as Waggoner got his starters and top bench players some rest in the fourth quarter with a big lead.

Justin Bumann ended up with a team-best 12 points, Queen had 10, Brueggeman 9, Shopinski 8, Hardin 7, Shute 6, Chris Priebe 5, Nippe 2, and Lamb 1.

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