BASKETBALL: PCHS builds steam with weekend wins
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville picked up a pair of comfortable victories over the weekend, sprinting past Carterville 54-31 on the road Friday night before hosting Alton at the 2012 Panther Showcase on Saturday, where PCHS closed out the first half with a 10-0 run before putting the Redbirds away 66-55.
Alton was quicker, longer, and taller than the Panthers overall, but Pinckneyville's frustrating defense gave the Redbirds fits.
"I thought our kids stuck to the game plan," said PCHS head coach Bob Waggoner, who was presented with a game ball prior to the contest in commemoration of his 100th victory at Pinckneyville.
"They got to the rim on us a little bit, but we really did a good job of team defense and trying to cut off the dribble drive, and when they got in there we were really physical with them and tried to keep them off the glass. It took us a little while to adjust but I thought our kids overall did a very good job of making them try to make outside shots, and they didn't hit them early."
The key stretch in the game was the Panthers' last 4:36 of the opening half where they scored ten straight points, four each from Justin Bumann and Dylan Hardin along with a bucket from Payton Nippe.
Alton got no closer than eight in the second half, where it was solid free throw shooting from PCHS that did damage. The Panthers made 22-of-29 at the line as the Redbirds got into the bonus early in the fourth period while trying to keep the game within reach.
"They're well-coached," Waggoner said. "They started (fouling) with about three and a half minutes to go and they had their teams rotating, you could tell they'd been in that situation before and their kids knew what to do. It was a tribute to our kids hitting free throws."
The Panthers hadn't seen the type of team speed Alton presented in a while, quite possibly since their opening game of the year with Cairo. With little time to get ready after Friday's road win at Carterville, Waggoner had to be a little creative with his preparation.
"We didn't have very much time, but what we did (Saturday) is we put eight players on the floor and went five versus eight," said Waggoner. "We said if you can hold the ball against eight, you can surely hold it against five, and I thought that really helped us (Saturday night). Our J-V kids did a great job of trying to simulate their athleticism and their speed."
Nippe earned game MVP for the Showcase win over Alton with his game-high 21-point effort. Hunter Queen followed with 16 points, Hardin 12, Bryant Shute 7, Bumann and Chris Priebe 4, C.J. Opp 2 and Keegan Kellerman 1. Chris Lawrence came off the bench to lead Alton with 15 points.
On Friday, the Panthers led by seven at the half at Carterville, but the Lions roared back to take a 20-19 lead in the third on Michael Aschemann's three-point play that wrapped up a 10-2 spurt with 6:00 to go in the period.
Pinckneyville got down to business from there, outscoring Carterville 35-11 the rest of the way while making seven straight free throws and three three-pointers, two from Queen and another from Luke Miller.
Queen finished with 17 points to lead PCHS, Hardin added 13, Nippe 7, Priebe and Miller 5, Shute and Bumann 3 and Devan Downard 1.
The Panthers (19-4, 6-0) play just once this week, hosting Anna-Jonesboro on Friday night at 6:15 p.m.
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