BASKETBALL: Hardin, Fisher lead Panthers over Sparta
SPARTA, IL - Senior Dylan Hardin and sophomore Tristan Fisher came up huge for Pinckneyville in Wednesday night's 2A Regional Semifinal in Sparta, scoring 15 points apiece as the Panthers escaped Fulton Gymnasium with a 45-44 victory over the Bulldogs to earn a spot in Friday's championship game with the Nashville Hornets.
The Panthers trailed by seven at the half, and by eight with two minutes gone by in the third quarter, but had an 8-0 run towards the end of the third and made a few more big plays down the stretch than did Sparta.
A three-pointer from Seth Ferguson brought the Bulldogs back to within a single point with about 3.5 seconds on the fourth quarter game clock, but Sparta was out of timeouts and the Panthers didn't have to attempt an inbounds play as the clock ticked down to zero.
"Two good ball clubs going at it that know each other very well, playing each other just last Friday, this making it a third time," said Panthers head coach Bob Waggoner. "It just came down to a couple of plays that some different kids made and we were fortunate that we made a few more than they did towards the end."
The victory gave the Panthers their 20th win overall for the 2012-13 season, extending their streak of 20-win campaigns to eleven consecutive years.
"You know they're not going to go away," said Sparta head coach Jeff Bowlby. "That's why they're the program that they are, they're going to keep fighting. You can set your program by theirs - every year, year in and year out, they're going to have kids that bust their butts for 32 minutes. I think for the most part that's what we did this year."
The Bulldogs were in command early, taking a 7-1 lead on a three from Phil Lockhart, who led the Bulldogs in scoring on the night with 15 points. Hardin drove in for a lay-up out of a timeout moments later, but then Lockhart found Christian Jackson for a fast break layup and Aaron Rushing got deep in the post for his only bucket of the first half to give Sparta an 11-3 lead and force a second early timeout from the Panther bench.
"We took two quick timeouts to sort of stem the tide," said Waggoner. "This time of year you don't want anything to get away from you. We got an early foul on (Priebe), we tried to sub offense-defense knowing that if we could play him a little bit in the second quarter that we would be able to get better in the second half. That was the main goal was to just survive the first half and in the second half win, and I think it came through for us."
Fisher took an inbounds pass underneath the Pinckneyville basket for a layup to cut the Sparta lead down to three, but the Bulldogs countered to outscore the Panthers 8-4 over the last five minutes of the half and led 22-15.
Hardin opened the second half with the Panthers' first three-pointer of the night, but free throws from Jackson and Ferguson matched the Bulldogs' biggest lead at 26-18 with six minutes left in the third quarter.
With just over four minutes left in the third, Fisher drove the lane for a layup to start the Panthers' key 8-0 run. Luke Miller followed with a three-quarter court pass to Hardin off a Sparta miss, and Hardin found Nolan Luke for a transition bucket with 2:45 on the clock. Hardin then picked off a post feed and fed it to Miller on the fast break to cut the lead to one, and Priebe's stick-back with under a minute to go gave Pinckneyville their first lead since it was 1-0.
Three lead-changes and two ties later, Hardin buried a three with 5:50 to play to put the Panthers up four. Sparta's Rushing heated up in the fourth, bringing the Bulldogs to within one with 3:54 remaining after he hit back to back shots to force a Pinckneyville timeout. Lockhart made one of two free throws after being fouled on a defensive rebound to tie it at 37-37, but from there the Panthers took control.
"We did a good job (on Rushing) until he got out in a little transition and got some space," Waggoner said. "We always want to make him catch in traffic. We know he puts it on the floor a lot, we could get in there and dig on him. I thought our guys followed the game plan on him very well."
Fisher drove in and got Rushing in the air before ducking underneath to convert a tough layup with 2:15 remaining, then stole the ball away from the Bulldogs to start a fast break the other way just seconds later. Hardin was taken down hard on his layup attempt, but got up and sank both free throws for a four-point Panther lead.
"We noticed on film that their transition defense wasn't very good," said Waggoner. "They really go to the offensive glass and give you some outlets and run-outs, and we thought we could get them out in the open floor and get some easy baskets."
Priebe hit two charity tosses with 49.8 to go as Pinckneyville went up by five, but Rushing kicked a post feed out to Ferguson at the top of the key for a three to bring Sparta back within two.
Hardin then missed the front end of a one-and-one opportunity at the line and Sparta called their final timeout with 25.9 left after securing the rebound and advancing the ball upcourt - a decision that ultimately prevented them from extending the ball game after failing to convert on offense.
With 10.7 remaining, Fisher sank two free throws to cap off his stellar evening. The Bulldogs raced down and got Ferguson open in the corner for a three to get within one, but with less than five seconds on the clock and Sparta out of timeouts, Hardin simply held the ball under the basket and watched the last few seconds tick away.
"I'm glad they didn't have the timeout," stated Waggoner. "Our players are smart enough to know, during the timeout with (25.9) seconds left, that (Sparta) was out of timeouts and not to inbound the ball if there were under 5 seconds. Dylan Hardin made a very intelligent play."
"I really thought Tristan Fisher played an outstanding game tonight, not only offensively but defensively. Dylan came through for us on a couple of big shots to give us the lead. It was just a good overall ball game by both teams. Sparta has a great ball club, we were just fortunate to come out of here with a win."
The Bulldogs made 15-of-23 free throws on the night - not great, not awful - but missed five of their last seven attempts at the line in the final six minutes of action.
"We should have made more free throws when we had to," Bowlby said. "Give (Pinckneyville) credit, they made enough plays in the third quarter to overcome the deficit and that's who they are. They're a good basketball program. I thought we played well. We executed our game plan to a tee. We wanted to pack it in and make them beat us from the perimeter. I thought for the most part that's what we did, we just didn't make a play when we had to, give credit to Pinckneyville."
Hardin had three assists and a pair of steals to go along with his 15 points, Fisher had two assists and three offensive rebounds with his 15. Priebe had just five points, but grabbed a team-high seven rebounds for the Panthers. Luke and Caleb Dahn each had four points, Miller added two.
Pinckneyville (20-10), the No. 2 seed at the Sparta Regional, meets top-seeded Nashville (22-7) on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. to decide which team moves on to next week's Sectional at West Frankfort.