BASKETBALL: Reinforcements arrive for PCHS sophs

With their varsity basketball season in the books, several Panthers returned to the sophomore team for Monday night's matchup with Breese Central at the Murphysboro Tournament where a balanced scoring attack led Pinckneyville to a 55-39 victory over the Cougars.

Sam Simpson and Caleb Dahn both finished with 11 points to lead PCHS, which moves on to Saturday's consolation semifinals at 12:45 at Murphysboro High School. A victory there would place them in the consolation championship later that day at 3:15 while a loss would bring the season to an end.

Dahn, Nolan Luke, Tristan Fisher and Braden Kitowski didn't see much - if any - time with the sophomore team during the regular season, but all played major minutes on Monday night.

The Cougars held a 16-14 advantage early in the second quarter when things started to turn around for the Panthers. Pinckneyville scored the next six points - all from the free throw line during a foul-plagued first half for both squads.

Up 20-18 after a Breese Central bucket, the Panthers closed out strong in the first half. Kitowski made a three-pointer with 2:30 to go, then a minute later grabbed a rebound and fired an outlet pass to Jacob Downard for a fast break layup. With under a minute to go, Kitowski fed a no-look pass to Clayton Houghland under the basket for an easy deuce, and PCHS led 27-18 at the break.

The onslaught continued in the third quarter where Dahn had six of his eleven points. After the Cougars scored the first four points of the half, the Panthers outscored them 19-4 the remaining 7:10 of the third quarter before pulling their starters near the midway point of the fourth with a comfortable lead.

Fisher finished with 8 points, Houghland and Kitowski had 7, Hayden Carter 5, Downard 4 and Adam Banach 2.