News

BASKETBALL: Panthers claim Mississippi title

Posted February 13, 2012 10:00 pm

Doug Daniels

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[It may have been Senior Night for the Indians at Du Quoin High School, but with a quick glance at the final score one might have thought it was Senior Skip Day.

Pinckneyville came into Anders Gymnasium winners of ten straight varsity basketball contests and tacked on an eleventh with a convincing 58-19 conference-clinching victory less than 24 hours after their double-overtime win over Nashville on Friday.

"I think our kids are in the best shape of the year, I think they're playing with a lot of confidence," said Panthers' head coach Bob Waggoner. "I think as deep as we are, other teams are going to suffer on back-to-back nights more than us. I really feel that our kids are playing with the most confidence they've had."

The pair of weekend victories for Pinckneyville put them at 9-0 in the Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference Mississippi Division and left no other team with fewer than two defeats, wrapping up the crown for the Panthers (22-4 overall).

"When you win the conference its the accumulation of a season," said Waggoner. "I really think that our kids have to take a lot of credit for that along with our coaching staff because most of the time you'll have a night off or a bad game where you don't end up giving your best effort. Our kids have been very consistent this year."

Despite playing an extra eight minutes on Friday, the Panthers never appeared sluggish against the Indians. After John Galik put DHS on top 2-0 with a spin to the baseline for two, Du Quoin never led the rest of the night.

Dylan Hardin scored 10 of his game-high 23 points in a 12-6 first quarter for PCHS, hitting a pair of three-pointers in the frame.

Galik had a put-back for the Indians with 7:24 to go in the half that made it 14-8 Pinckneyville, but the Indians scored only three more points before the break and trailed 23-11.

"Once Pinckneyville's pressure got to us we got away from the team aspect, we didn't look to execute, didn't screen enough, and we've got to get the ball inside," said Indians' head coach Gabe Sveda.

"We've got to get the ball to the baseline and look inside there. Part of that is just not posting hard enough, sometimes it's not getting the ball where it needs to be, but they took us away from some things and we've got to stay together as a team for four quarters."

The Panthers scored the last five points of the first half and continued their run in the third quarter as first Hardin then Hunter Queen connected from downtown to complete a 15-0 stretch for PCHS.

"We challenged them about the fact that we'd come out sluggish a few times in the third and we really wanted to pick that energy level up, and we did," Waggoner said. "We knocked down some shots, when you make shots it's always better."

Du Quoin would manage just one field goal in the second half with 4:38 to go in the ball game and went 5-for-9 at the line after the break.

"It's hard to explain," said Sveda. "We played well (Friday) night, the last couple weeks we've been putting things together and getting more confidence. Give Pinckneyville credit, they came out and executed, took things away from us, knocked down shots."

"We've got to kind of put this one behind us right now and just look at Monday as a day to come in and get better, and look forward to Nashville next week."

Queen was right behind Hardin's highlight-reel 23-point effort with 20 points of his own, hitting a trio of three-pointers and making all five of his free throws.

"When you look for an offensive player," Waggoner said, "you look for people that can score around the basket, you look for people that have a mid-range game, you look for people that can extend you and shoot the three; and (Hardin) did all those tonight. With him you have to sort of pick your poison, and tonight whatever you took away, he went ahead and took the other things. Just a very good offensive game for him tonight."

Payton Nippe added 6 points for the Panthers, Chase Lazeby 3, Devan Downard and Keegan Kellerman 2 and Luke Miller and Bryant Shute 1.

For the Indians, Galik led the way with 10 points, Dillon Beltz had 3, Daulton Beltz had 2 and Daulton Donoghue, Austin Mansker, Brandon Williams and Jon Boss each finished with 1 point.

Each team has one regular season game remaining this Friday before the IHSA Regionals begin as Du Quoin (12-15, 5-4) heads to Nashville and Pinckneyville (22-4, 9-0) hosts Sparta.

Panthers win JV contest

Pinckneyville also won the junior-varsity matchup on Saturday, holding on for a 63-57 victory behind a strong fourth quarter from freshman Caleb Dahn.

Dahn led the Panthers with 16 points and had 11 in the fourth and final frame to help PCHS fight off a late charge by Du Quoin.

Lazenby was also in double figures for Pinckneyville with 10 points, Nolan Luke and Sterling Bejma had 6, Lucas Carter, Chaz Ruffino and Braden Kitowski 5, Brandon Edwards and Dalton Bathon 4 and Kelton Lively 2.

For DHS, Da. Beltz had a game-high 29 points, Matt Galik added 9, Donoghue 5, Austin Mapps and Jake Hunsiker 4, and Will Galik and John Erwin 3.

Panthers beat Nashville in double-OT

Down by nine towards the end of the third quarter, Pinckneyville cranked up the intensity to force overtime and eventually upended Nashville 54-52 in double-OT on Friday night to clinch at least a share of the SIRR Mississippi Division title.

"I thought we learned a valuable lesson (Friday) night in the fact that if we play as hard as we can with the intensity level, teams won't like that pressure," said Panthers' head coach Bob Waggoner. "We'd gotten away from that a little bit the last few games and that last four minutes of regulation and the overtime really showed our kids what they need to do, and I think it really carried over into (Saturday's game with Du Quoin)."

The Panthers trailed 38-29 with 1:30 to go in the third quarter but outscored the Hornets 16-7 over the next nine minutes to tie the game. Nashville committed 19 turnovers in the contest, many coming in the fourth quarter.

Pinckneyville missed chances to win the game at the line at the end of the first overtime after running most of the clock off on a single possession, but made 5-of-6 at the stripe in OT number two and avoided a potential disaster when Scott Brown's desperation three at the buzzer went in-and-out.

Dylan Hardin finished with 22 points for PCHS, Hunter Queen had 10, Payton Nippe and Bryant Shute each with 6, Chris Priebe and Justin Bumann 4 and Luke Miller 2.

Devin Holle led NHS with 21 points in the losing effort.

Indians hold off Carterville

After four ties and eight lead changes, Du Quoin emerged from Carterville's Lions Gymnasium with a 44-40 SIRR Mississippi Division triumph on Friday night despite just four players getting into the scoring column.

Ten of Brandon Williams' team-high thirteen points came in the first thirteen minutes of the game and included two three-point plays. The second of those gave Du Quoin a 19-17 lead.

Carterville's Dalton Brown answered with back-to-back threes, however, and if not for a late steal and lay-up by John Galik, the Indians would have trailed by even more than the 24-21 deficit they faced at halftime.

The Lions' lead got up to six before the Indians rallied back with an 11-2 run that put them in front to stay. Austin Mansker's three to kick off the scoring in the fourth quarter made it 35-31 Du Quoin and the Indians never led by more than five points but did not trail in the final frame.

"I thought we were patient offensively tonight," said Indians coach Gabe Sveda, "and that was the key for us down the stretch. We found the open man several times and I'm really proud of our team for the effort."

Williams had a key rebound and a pair of crucial free throws in the closing seconds to keep DHS ahead.

Mansker finished with 12 points, Galik 11 and Brenden Fred had 8.

Carterville won the J-V game 56-50.

Article Categories
News