BASKETBALL: PCHS girls fall to Breese Central
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville stayed close throughout, but ultimately couldn't finish off the upset of Breese Central, falling 52-45 on Saturday at the Panther Basketball Showcase.
"We made a few too many errors to win against a team of Breese Central's caliber," said Lady Panthers head coach Alan Engelhardt, "like getting back cut for 8 points and giving up a couple of rebounds to the free-throw shooter."
"If we eliminate mistakes like those, which are mental, we put ourselves in a great position to win the game."
The Lady Cougars are just shy of the latest Associated Press girls' basketball rankings top ten for class 2A and feature Jena Hemann, one of the best female athletes in Illinois who has signed to attend Texas A&M to run track after her senior year at Breese Central.
After not scoring for the first four and a half minutes of the game, the Lady Panthers rallied back to within two at the end of the first period and trailed by only one at the half.
"I think Breese's athleticism, which is a step up from anyone we have played this year, really took us some adjusting to early in the game," Engelhardt noted, "but once we adjusted, we really played pretty well offensively."
"We did a pretty good job of getting offensive movement to get good looks at the basket and looked to score when we did come open."
Pinckneyville trailed 35-32 after the third and the Lady Cougars continued to gradually build on their advantage.
Maddy Keith finished with a game-high 19 points for PCHS, Taylor Cicardi had 12, Heather McDaniel 7, Mo Ramsey 4, Dani Jenkel 2 and Lindsey Winter 1.
"This is a game that helps us get better even though we lost, and I hope the girls now understand that they can play with the best teams in the state when they attack, defend, and compete," said Engelhardt.
The Lady Panthers (19-7) host Sparta this Tuesday for Senior Night at PCHS.