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BASKETBALL: Lady Panthers work OT to beat DHS

Posted February 01, 2012 10:00 pm

Doug Daniels

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Du Quoin had far more at stake on Senior Night at Pinckneyville Community High School on Wednesday, but it was the Lady Panthers coming away with a dramatic 51-49 overtime victory at Thomas Gymnasium to knock the Lady Indians out of the Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference Mississippi Division title hunt.

DHS came into the game 7-1 in the conference, but with their second loss can do no better than second place even if they were to knock off fifth-ranked Nashville at home on Thursday's Senior Night for the Lady Indians.

Pinckneyville owned the offensive glass for the majority of the game, grabbing 21 rebounds off of their own misses - and there were plenty of those, too. The Lady Panthers shot just 19-for-72 (26%) in the game, yet were able to find a way to win.

"Even though we didn't shoot the ball very well tonight, we got a bunch of shots, we ran the offense pretty well as far as moving through," said PCHS head coach Alan Engelhardt. "Whenever you run your offense right, you only have ten turnovers, you hit the offensive glass, you don't let them get many second chance points, good things are going to happen to you."

There were seven ties and five lead changes in Wednesday's girls battle of the Beaucoup, setting up Katelyn Mayer's baseline jumper with 2.8 seconds to go in overtime that put the Lady Panthers out in front to stay.

"At the end of the game Pinckneyville made plays, give them all the credit in the world," said DHS head coach Shawn File. "Coach Engelhardt does a great job with them."

Three-pointers from Lindsey Winter and Alyssa Hirsch padded an early Pinckneyville lead to 18-10, and another from Dani Schoenbacher with 2:15 left in the first half gave the Lady Panthers their biggest lead of the night at 23-14.

Du Quoin closed the gap to just five at the half as Jessica Hirsch scored her only four points of the first two quarters in the final two minutes of the second against lockdown defense by Pinckneyville's Heather McDaniel.

"Heather has been tremendous defensively the last three weeks," Engelhardt said. "And offensively, we put a lot on her plate as far as handling the ball all the time. She made smart decisions down the stretch, she was a little tired and had other kids bring it up, but she chased (Hirsch) the whole game. We put ourselves in a position to win by guarding."

While the Lady Panthers were able to hold Du Quoin's all-time leading scorer to 10 points, they had difficulty keeping Rebekah Maddox from pouring in baskets from the paint. Maddox had 24 points on the night to lead DHS, and seven of those during a 17-4 third quarter run by the Lady Indians to grab a 35-29 lead heading to the fourth.

"They didn't have much of an answer for Rebekah on the inside," File said, "and that was really what we were trying to do, hoping they would flash off of Maddox and get (Hirsch) some looks. We got that a couple times, but not nearly as much as we were hoping to."

"In the second half, I was really proud of the effort. We made a few defensive changes and I thought they did a much better job of playing harder, and we got more rebounds in the second half."

With PCHS still down five with 6:40 to go in the fourth quarter, Mayer drained a three from the wing and was fouled, them completed the four-point play at the line to almost completely wipe out the Lady Panthers' deficit on a single possession. The two teams then traded buckets and free throws before A. Hirsch's three with 3:08 to go tied the game at 42-42.

Both teams missed an opportunity by splitting a pair of free throws in the final minute and a half, and Pinckneyville couldn't get a good look at the basket on their final possession of regulation, sending the game to overtime tied at 45-45.

Maddox had all four points for DHS in the OT, but it wasn't enough. Despite making just 2-of-4 at the line in the extra frame, the Lady Panthers had the ball in a tie game with time ticking away before Mayer's short-range jumper trickled through the net for a two-point Pinckneyville lead.

The Lady Indians had 2.8 seconds to go the length of the floor following a timeout, but J. Hirsch's desperation heave near mid-court was just off the mark.

"The kids played hard tonight, and that's what going to the offensive glass is - it's crashing and playing hard, doing those things," Engelhardt said. "I think it helped last week when you play Nashville on Thursday and you play Breese Central on Saturday, two top ten teams, it makes you better."

"Even if you don't shoot it well, you can survive, and I think that's something that we're trying to learn."

Maddox and J. Hirsch were both in double figures for Du Quoin, Taylor King added 8 points, Alexis Kohrs 5 and Bailie Caldwell 2.

A. Hirsch topped PCHS with 15 points, Winter had 10, Mayer 8, Haley Simpson 7, McDaniel 6, Schoenbacher 3 and Keelyn Stein 2.

Both teams have just one regular season game remaining before Regional play begins next week, with Du Quoin (22-6) hosting Nashville and Pinckneyville (13-14) heading to Sparta, both on Thursday night.

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