BASKETBALL: Panthers wear down Gibault, thump West Frankfort
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Gibault Hawks came to Thomas Gymnasium this past Friday night unbeaten, ranked No. 6 in the AP preseason poll for Class 1A, and had easily defeated all five of their opponents this season. While they still have an opportunity to hang on to their poll ranking, their unbeaten season came to an end as Pinckneyville had a little more gas in the tank late in the game and held on for a 34-30 victory in a showdown of two of the area's best defensive teams.
"I thought both teams were giving a tremendous amount of effort on the defensive end," said Panthers' head coach Bob Waggoner. "You see why (GIbault has) had success, but I want to give our kids a lot of credit for battling and making it tough on them. There were very few opportunities they had where they took an uncontested shot."
It became evident early on that fans were in store for a low-scoring war on Dick Corn Court. The Panthers led 5-4 after Gibault's John Pratl hit a fadeaway jumper with 3:00 to go in the opening quarter, but jumped ahead by five following two free throws from Hunter Queen and a basket from Dylan Hardin, who led Pinckneyville with 13 points on the night.
"Dylan's probably the most-improved kid in our program," said Waggoner. "He's worked hard on his game, he's worked hard on his body getting stronger. I think last year he sort of got thrown to the lions as a sophomore. He took some lumps but right now he's reaping the benefits of it, and we as a coaching staff are too because he's probably been our most consistent player early in the year."
With an opportunity to extend the lead, the Panthers were called for an offensive foul, allowing the Hawks to finish out the period with a 4-0 spurt.
Brendan McFarland's three-pointer put Gibault on top 11-9 early in the second, but Pinckneyville would respond. Chris Priebe scored in the post and Queen buried a triple, helping PCHS build an 18-15 halftime advantage.
Gibault briefly took the lead near the end of the third period, but Hardin stuck back a rebound with only a second remaining to put the Panthers up for good.
Queen drove the baseline for a layup then Hardin hit three-of-four free throw attempts as Pinckneyville led 30-24, and Gibault would get no closer than four the rest of the way.
"Being able to rotate eight guys, I thought we were a little fresher than they were and they couldn't have an opportunity to score an easy basket," Waggoner said. "They wore down a little more than we did. Realistically, we want to have an eight-man rotation, we want to be able to pressure the ball and make sure we have great rotations. I thought our kids really battled on the boards against a team that was bigger than us."
Fouls began to pile up for the Hawks, as they were whistled fifteen times in the second half. For the game, however, the Panthers were good on just 13-of-27 free throws (48%).
Hardin was the only PCHS player in double figures on the night. Queen finished with 9 points, Payton Nippe 4, C.J. Opp 3, Priebe and Bryant Shute 2 and Keegan Kellerman 1.
Pratl, Schreder and Mitch Meyer all had 6 points for Gibault.
<u>Panthers whip West Frankfort</u>
On Saturday, the Panthers hosted West Frankfort and sent the Redbirds packing with a 59-21 defeat led by Queen's 14 points.
The game was tied 2-2 when Pinckneyville stormed to a 19-0 run to close out the opening period. The Panthers outscored the Redbirds in each period, holding them to just two points in the first and fourth quarters.
Nippe joined Queen in double-digit scoring with 10 points for Pinckneyville. Shute (9 points), Kellerman (6), Caleb Dahn (5), Hardin (4), Opp (4), Luke Miller (3), Priebe (2) and Devan Downard (2) also scored for the Panthers.
Dahn, a 6'2 freshman, made his debut at the varsity level for PCHS.
Pinckneyville (3-0) hosts Carterville this Friday night at Thomas Gym before heading to the SIU Arena on Saturday night to face Monticello at 6:00 p.m. as part of the Saluki Shootout.
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