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BASKETBALL: Lady Panthers wear down against powerful Hornettes

Posted February 12, 2011 10:00 pm

Doug Daniels

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville kept it close through a half, but Nashville was eventually able to pull away for a 49-24 victory to earn the girls' Class 2A Sparta Regional championship on Thursday night.

A 9-0 run by the Lady Panthers just before the break made it a three-point game, but the Hornettes outscored PCHS 26-6 in the third and fourth quarters to advance into Monday's Nashville Sectional.

"I thought we did a heck of a job of fighting back," said Lady Panthers' head coach Alan Engelhardt. "Obviously (Nashville) is a tremendous team, we got down early, we didn't quit."

"We were talking to the kids at the end of the first half, I thought we wore them down a little bit and got them in some foul trouble and did some of those things. Ultimately though, I think it probably cost us our legs a little bit there in the second half."

Things got off to a bumpy start for Pinckneyville as Jennifer Moeller backed it in for two and a foul, sparking an 11-2 run to begin the game for Nashville as the Lady Panthers struggled to take care of the basketball.

"It's their length," Engelhardt said. "You may get the pass through, but you have to put it over the top of somebody instead of making something clean and quick, it slows you down."

The Hornetts led 21-9 in the second quarter when PCHS began to make a charge.

Dani Jenkel drove to the hoop and was rewarded with a pair of free throws, then a minute later Taylor Cicardi swatted Jenna Morris' shot and chased it down for a layup with 3:33 remaining in the half.

Katrina Henson put in a pair of free throws and Mo Ramsey sank a three-pointer, and a minute until the half the Lady Panthers were down 21-18.

The Hornettes toughened up on defense from that point on, however, holding the Lady Panthers to just two field goals and a free throw in the final two quarters.

"I thought in the first half, the pace is more of what we wanted the pace to be," Engelhardt said, "and in the second half they did a better job of not dribbling as much, they used their passing to slow the game down. We were expending a lot of energy on defense and then weren't getting any good looks on offense."

Cicardi's 7 points were a team-high for Pinckneyville, Heather McDaniel added 6, Henson and Jenkel 4, Ramsey 3. Senior Maddy Keith was held scoreless.

Shaye Harre led Nashville with 13 points, Melanie Rhine had 11, Morris 10, Erica Brown 8 and Moeller 7.

"They do a tremendous job at taking away dribble drive, and that's (Keith's) strength," Engelhardt said. "Morris is a tremendous defender, she doesn't do it alone though, they have great help. Any time you put it on the floor, they have great help and it caused us some problems."

Nashville's season continues on Monday in their home gym against Vienna at 7:30 p.m. in the Nashville Sectional semifinal.

Pinckneyville's season comes to an end with a 20-9 record.

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