BASKETBALL: Lady Panthers finish 3-2 at Ham-Co tournament
Pinckneyville wrapped up the Hamilton County girls tournament with a 3-2 record after getting wins over Lawrenceville and Galatia this weekend while falling to the event host Lady Foxes. Lady Panthers Keelyn Stein and Kearsten Opp both made the all-tournament team.
"Ultimately this week was good to get a lot of our kids experience," said PCHS head coach Alan Engelhardt, "to teach us some lessons, and to develop some depth as we played without Megan Bagley and Kaitlyn Goldman all week, and without Sophie Keith the final two games. The big key is for us to learn those lessons and get better from them."
PCHS used an 11-0 run in the second half to finish off Lawrenceville 40-35 on Friday Evening. Stein led the way with fourteen points for the Lady Panthers.
"We did a nice job of grinding out a win," Engelhardt said. "Keelyn really carried us during (the 11-0 run), scoring nine of her points in the third, and we hit just enough free-throws down the stretch to seal the win."
"I thought we did a good job of beating a team that was bigger and more athletic than us and our bench came up big down the stretch after we lost both Raygan (Yates) and Sophie to ankle injuries."
K. Opp added seven points for Pinckneyville, Keith and Caitie Opp each had five, Caitlyn Anderson and Andrea Morgan three, Taylor Smith two and Taylor Griffin one.
It took overtime, but PCHS was able to get past Galatia 51-47 despite struggling on the defensive end of the floor the first thirty-two minutes.
"I don't know if we got caught looking ahead to the night's game against Hamilton County or if we were just struggling after a tough game from the previous night," Engelhardt said.
"I thought Caitlyn Anderson played her best game of the year, not just scoring ten points, but picking up six assists from the high post by finding open shooters and cutters. Kearsten Opp did a nice job of relaxing and playing like we had seen in practice early in the year, scoring on a variety of pull-ups and drives."
K. Opp (14 points), Stein (12) and Anderson (10) all finished in double figures for Pinckneyville. Yates (6), Smith (4), Morgan (3) and Griffin (2) also scored against Galatia.
Hamilton County came out on fire, racing to twenty first-quarter points, and used a dominant third quarter to put away the Lady Panthers 48-38 in the tournament's final game on Saturday night. PCHS scored just two points in the entire third period.
"We did several things right against a solid team, but ultimately our scoring drought from start of the third quarter until about the four minute mark of the fourth quarter was something we couldn't escape," said Engelhardt. "We didn't do a good job of getting the ball into the paint to exploit our advantage inside in the second half as they sagged off our non-scorers to make entry difficult. One of the big things we can take from this game is that everyone has to be a threat on the floor and some of our more talented scorers really need to have that aggressive mindset to get us some points when we are struggling."
Stein capped off a solid tournament with seventeen points, K. Opp had eight, Yates six, C. Opp and Morgan three apiece, and Smith one.
Pinckneyville (3-2) is at Sparta on Tuesday night and at Benton on Thursday. The Lady Panthers' home opener is on December 9 against Du Quoin.