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BASKETBALL: Lady Panthers rally to force OT, but fall to Carterville

Posted January 11, 2012 10:00 pm

Doug Daniels

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville stormed back from down nine at the half to force overtime, but couldn't get a shot to fall in the extra frame when they needed it and fell 48-46 to Carterville on Tuesday night at Thomas Gymnasium.

The Lady Panthers scored just 13 points in a dismal first half and needed a 14-7 fourth quarter to send the Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference Mississippi Division contest into overtime.

"Especially the middle two quarters were just dreadful," said Pinckneyville girls head basketball coach Alan Engelhardt. "You can't try to all of a sudden put forth effort in the fourth quarter and hope that it's enough. You're happy your kids battled, but on the other hand, where is that effort for four quarters?"

PCHS has suffered through similar situations during a recent stretch where they have gone 1-3 with losses to Carlyle, Vandalia and now Carterville.

"We play a half a game instead of playing 32 minutes," Engelhard said. "We've yet to learn that lesson, it's bitten us several times."

The Lady Lions were up 24-17 in the third period when Pinckneyville first began to make a comeback.

Lindsey Winter worked a give-and-go with Alexis Anderson and started an 8-0 run for PCHS with 6:01 to go in the period.

Haley Simpson, who finished with a double-double in points and rebounds with 10 and 10, scored four straight points to cap off the run but Andrea Kesler hit back-to-back three-pointers for the Lady Lions who led 32-25 at the quarter break.

Winter had a three with 5:00 to play, then Alyssa Hirsch buried a pair of triples, the second tying the score at 36-36 with 2:22 on the game clock.

"For whatever reason right now, we have a lot of people who are looking to shoot as a second option," Engelhardt said. "They want to pass if first, they want to do some other things. Alyssa was looking to catch the ball and shoot, she was looking to score when she caught the thing and that was the biggest difference."

Carterville inched ahead 39-37 on free throws, but Simpson drove the baseline for the game-tying bucket with 28 seconds to play, eventually resulting in four more minutes of basketball.

Hirsch gave the Lady Panthers a brief 44-43 lead with her three-pointer from the corner midway through the overtime, but with the game tied at 46-46, Brigitte Gentry put the Lady Lions ahead for good as she scored inside with 45 seconds to play.

Pinckneyville had opportunities to tie, but couldn't get a shot to fall in the closing moments.

"We had a couple kids who could beat their man to the rim, we just didn't get shots to go down," said Engelhardt.

The Lady Panthers played the OT without point guard Heather McDaniel, who fouled out late in the fourth quarter.

Hirsch led three Lady Panthers in double figures with 11 points, Mayer and Simpson each added 10. Rounding out the scoring for PCHS were McDaniel (5 points), Winter (5), Keelyn Stein (3) and Dani Schoenbacher (2). Kesler and Sidney Brothers each had 9 points to lead the Lady Lions. Nina Skinner added 8.

Pinckneyville (11-9) heads to West Frankfort this Saturday to begin mid-winter tournament play.

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