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BASKETBALL: Pinckneyville's defense smothers Olney

Posted December 29, 2011 10:00 pm

Doug Daniels

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[After Pinckneyville took care of business against Steeleville in the morning session, the defending champions of the Duster Thomas Hoops Classic met up with Olney for a rematch of last year's title game - only this time far less was at stake.

With Olney losing to Benton in Tuesday's night session and Du Quoin knocking off the Rangers on Wednesday morning, the three teams were all 2-1 after play in Pool B wrapped up. Free throw percentage handed the top spot to Du Quoin, leaving Olney to meet up with Pinckneyville, 2-1 in Pool A with a loss to eventual champion Teutopolis, for third place.

The Panthers absolutely dominated the fourth quarter, outscoring the Tigers 15-2 in the final frame on their way to a 45-33 victory in their 5th annual holiday tournament event.

"I think overall it was our best effort of the year for four quarters," said PCHS head coach Bob Waggoner. "Defensively we were very solid and did a very good job of competing with them on their dribble drive, their motion. I thought once we adjusted a little bit on how they were trying to get (Michael Fehrenbacher) open he struggled a little bit more getting open looks."

"But I thought our best part was that our offense was a lot crisper tonight, made good decisions, and really looked more aggressive."

Olney led 7-2 after a three-point play by Fehrenbacher with 5:38 left in the first quarter, but the Panthers struck back with seven unanswered including four from Chris Preibe, who shared the team-high of a dozen points with Dylan Hardin.

Hardin's pull-up jumper with a hand in his face at the end of the first gave the Panthers a two-point lead, then Priebe scored off an inbounds play and Bryant Shute buried a three-pointer, forcing a timeout from Olney coach Rob Flanagan with his team trailing 16-9.

The Tigers rallied back at the line, going six-for-six the remainder of the half and trailing 18-17 with sixteen minutes gone by.

Neither team could pull away in the third as two threes from Shute kept the Panthers going, but in the fourth, Pinckneyville put the pedal to the floor.

With the Panthers up 34-31, Olney attempted a lob pass into the paint off an inbounds play that was stolen away by Hardin, who raced to the goal for a layup as part of an 11-0 stretch for PCHS. Hardin had played sparingly in Tuesday's games after spraining an ankle in the morning session.

"Dylan really showed a ton of toughness tonight playing on a hurt ankle," Waggoner said. "Four games in two days and he's not feeling really well, he's a key to us. He's a good athlete and has some good basketball sense, and tonight was a great effort by him and a big part of the reason why we were successful."

Hardin went four-for-four at the line in the final two minutes and Payton Nippe also sank a pair as the Panthers pulled away for a twelve-point win.

"It was nice to hit the free throws and hopefully we build confidence from that," said Waggoner.

Hunter Queen did not score in the game, but held Olney's leading scorer for the tournament, Brook Pampe, to just two points. Both Queen and Pampe ended up on the All-Tournament team along with Fehrenbacher.

"I thought defensively (Queen) was as good as he could be," Waggoner said, "and that's what we talked about, our guys buying in and being unselfish, because really the ultimate goal is for us to win."

Shute (9 points), Nippe (8) and Keegan Kellerman (4) also scored for the Panthers against Olney. The Tigers were led by Fehrenbacher's 15 points, Joel Eagleson added 14.

The loss was only Olney's second on the season, and just their fourth in five years at the Classic.

In the morning session, Pinckneyville handled Steeleville 73-28 and got all twelve players into the scoring column.

The Panthers led 16-7 after one and 30-17 at the break before pouring it on in the second half.

Queen led Pinckneyville against the Warriors with 15 points, Shute had 12, Nippe 11, Caleb Dahn 8, Justin Bumann 7, Chase Lazenby 5, Priebe and Luke Miller 4, Hardin, Kellerman and Devin Downard 2, and C.J. Opp 1.

The Panthers (10-2, 3-1 at DTHC) take a few days off before returning to action at Waterloo on January 3.

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