BASKETBALL: Junior Lady Panthers knocked out in Regional Final
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Junior Lady Panthers led 16-9 at half and by as many as nine points on two separate occasions, but couldn't hold off a late rally by Red Bud in the finals of the Girls Class M Region 5 basketball tournament on Thursday night.
Red Bud outscored Pinckneyville (District #50) 14-4 over the final eleven minutes of the game to advance to next weeks' State Tournament at Rend Lake with a 23-22 victory at Pinckneyville Junior High School.
Daisy Dudek's bucket with 35 seconds to go tied the score at 22-22, but Pinckneyville couldn't avoid fouling and sending Red Bud to the line where they made one-of-four in the closing 30 seconds, just enough for a win as the Junior Lady Panthers committed crucial turnovers down the stretch.
Morgan Gleason and Raygan Yates led PJHS with 6 points each, Brooklyn Morrow added 4, and Dudek, Mariah Clark and Kylee Kling each had 2.