BASKETBALL: Defending champ #204 knocked out
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Pinckneyville (District #204) Tigers will not defend their 2011 Class S State Championship this season after suffering defeat at the hands of Steeleville in Thursday night's Regional Semifinal 51-43 at #204.
The second half of the highly-contested matchup featured five ties and eight lead changes before the Warriors pulled away with an 8-0 run to close out the ball game.
Down 22-17 at the break, the Tigers came out ready to go in the third quarter, scoring the first five points of the second half to tie it up on Alex Howard's put-back with 5:27 on the clock. A minute later, Sam Simpson put #204 ahead with two of his team-high 16 points.
As the period winded down, Grayson Buza knifed through traffic for a tough bucket, then Corey Dahn took to the baseline for a reverse lay-up that gave Pinckneyville a 33-27 advantage.
Steeleville hit a three at the end of the third and another at the beginning of the fourth quarter, however, tying the game up again with 5:51 to play.
The lead would change hands on four straight possessions in the span of less than a minute, the fourth swing coming on Simpson's three ball to put the Tigers on top 41-39. After the Warriors knotted it up with a stick-back, Simpson again gave #204 a slim lead with a pair of free throws, but they would turn out to be the last points of the season for the Tigers.
Howard fouled out with 1:52 to play and Pinckneyville committed back-to-back turnovers to assist in the Warriors' late rally.
Howard joined Simpson in double figures for #204 with 10 points, also grabbing 6 rebounds. Simpson led the way with 13 boards.
Buza had 7 points, Hayden Carter 5, Dahn 4 and Kyle Kreger 1. Kreger also had a pair of assists and four steals for #204, which ended it's season with an overall record of 18-8.
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