BASKETBALL: Lady Panthers avoid disaster against Sparta
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Despite scoring just two points in the fourth quarter, Pinckneyville was able to escape their Regional quarterfinal matchup with Sparta 51-43 on Monday night thanks to a dominating first half.
The Lady Panthers led 49-26 heading to the final period, but Jade Vaughn led a spirited comeback for the Lady Bulldogs, finishing with 28 points of which 23 came in the second half.
"We knew Vaughn was a tough matchup, she does a great job getting herself open," said PCHS girls head coach Alan Engelhardt. "She doesn't have very much help at all."
"We did a decent job on her, but the biggest thing is she'd score most of the time when we missed a layup and they'd outlet and let her run. When we were making baskets, she couldn't get out and run."
Missed opportunities on offense for the Lady Panthers contributed to the rally for Sparta, as Pinckneyville left countless points on the board by going ice cold in the fourth quarter.
"We had ourselves down for missing twenty-one shots inside the lane," said Engelhardt. "Twenty-one. Obviously, you're going to miss one or two of those, but twenty-one, and most of them were behind the defense."
Pinckneyville was led by Haley Simpson's 13 points, Katelyn Mayer added 11, Heather McDaniel 8, Keelyn Stein 5, Alyssa Hirsch and Lindsey Winter 4, and Megan Bagley, Haley Szczepanski and Alexis Anderson each finished with 2.
Simpson also had a team-high in rebounding with 9, Mayer and Stein each had 7. McDaniel dished out 5 assists while doing most of the work on Vaughn defensively before fouling out late in the game.
"I'm not frustrated defensively," Engelhardt said. "I thought our body movement was good, our ball movement was pretty good, especially early, and then in the fourth quarter it was like the wheels fell off the wagon for whatever reason."
A let-down like the one the Lady Panthers had in the fourth quarter Monday would without question spell doom for them in the semifinals when they meet fifth-ranked Nashville, which won the Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference Mississippi Division with a perfect 10-0 mark that includes a pair of comfortable wins over PCHS.
"Nashville is obviously extremely talented," said Engelhardt. "Our big thing is we're going to have to keep the score of the game down, kind of the opposite of our strategy in years past with Nashville. If you keep the score down and keep it close, they maybe you give yourself a chance at the end."
"If the score gets up, they're so good defensively that we're not going to be able to keep pace."
The Hornettes (24-3) and Lady Panthers (15-14) tip off at 6:00 p.m. at Thomas Gymnasium on Tuesday night. Nashville has won a Regional title every year since 1999 and has advanced to the State Tournament in each of the last three seasons.
Bagley and Emma Opp also advanced in the three-point showdown for the Lady Panthers.
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