BASKETBALL: Panthers take command of Mississippi
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[With the Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference Mississippi Division lead at stake, Pinckneyville dominated the second half of Friday night's meeting with Du Quoin by holding the Indians to just 13 points after the break and going on to win 52-38 in front of a packed house at Thomas Gymnasium.
Bryant Shute poured in four three-pointers during a 19-3 third quarter run by the Panthers, who took command of the Mississippi as the only remaining unbeaten with a 4-0 conference mark.
"I thought we had good looks the whole game," said Pinckneyville head coach Bob Waggoner. "We missed some point blank baskets, but finally when those shots started to fall our defensive consistency paid off and we got a little bit of breathing room."
Playing their second game without leading scorer and lockdown defender Hunter Queen (mononucleosis), the Panthers found the offense they were lacking in a loss at Waterloo on Tuesday night in the form of Shute and Dylan Hardin, who led all scorers with 21 points.
"(Hardin is) a steady performer, he's probably one of our most consistent kids," said Waggoner. "He did a nice job tonight defensively on (Du Quoin's John Galik) also."
Meanwhile, Du Quoin converted on only three field goals in the second half as they struggled to find open looks or get the ball inside.
"It seemed like we were satisfied at halftime," Indians' head coach Gabe Sveda said. "We've got to come out with more urgency than that. We have to do a better job of sticking to our game plan and executing. Give Pinckneyville credit, they came out and took some things away from us and hit some key shots."
With the crowd already on edge after an overtime junior-varsity contest, those in blue were treated to a 9-2 run to open the ball game by the Panthers after Payton Nippe sank a three-pointer with 4:16 to go in the first period.
Brandon Williams got the visiting Indian fans going with a three-point play on a slam dunk moments later, but those would be the senior center's only points of the night as the undersized Panthers found ways to shut down Du Quoin's post game.
"We're pretty much undersized the whole time at every position on the floor," Waggoner said, "but we told our kids tonight you don't measure yourself by your height, you measure it by your heart and tonight our heart was pretty big."
Their help defense was big, too.
"They did a good job helping number one, and we've got to do a better job of getting our passing angles to get the ball to the inside," said Sveda. "There are times when (Williams) had guys on his back, we could have got the ball in there and worked off of him, but (Pinckneyville) did a good job of digging down, doubling down some."
Cayle Diggins got Du Quoin back into it with six points in the final three minutes of the opening frame, but Hardin knocked down a three from the top of the key at the buzzer to give the Panthers a 16-13 edge.
Threes from Galik and Diggins had the Indians ahead 25-21 as time ticked down in the first half, then Justin Bumann was good on a three from the corner just before the break and the Panthers trailed by only one.
In the third, Pinckneyville and Shute took over. Following a baseline drive and layup by Hardin, Shute buried back-to-back threes sandwiched around a Du Quoin turnover that prompted a timeout from Sveda and the Indian bench down 32-25 with 5:33 to go in the third.
"We probably stayed in that zone (defense) a tad too long," Sveda said. "(Shute) hit some big shots for them, him and Hardin both. They're nice players, they do a lot of good things for them and they've got leadership."
Diggins stopped the bleeding for a moment with a top-of-the-key triple, but two more Du Quoin turnovers led to two more threes by Shute, and the Panthers were on top 41-28 with 2:18 left in the third quarter.
"We didn't come out (in the second half) with enough urgency on either end of the floor," Sveda said, "and we can't be satisfied with that at all. We'll keep our heads up, we'll regroup, and we'll get better."
Galik hit a three before the end of the period, but Pinckneyville slowed the tempo down in the fourth quarter and outscored the Indians 9-6 to preserve the win.
"I thought if we could continue with the pressure, defensively they would wear down," said Waggoner. "I really thought that we got some easier looks and made them defensively slow down a little bit and they gave us some baskets."
Diggins led Du Quoin with 15 points, Galik added 10, Brenden Fred 5, Williams and Jon Boss 3, and Daulton Beltz 2. Behind Shute and Hardin's big night, Bumann (5), Nippe (5) and Luke Miller (3) accounted for the remainder of the Panthers' points.
"Bryant has that offensive capability, and we've told him to continue to shoot the ball," Waggoner said. "Tonight they went in, it makes you feel better, and it makes him feel better as a player that he knocked down those shots."
"With Hunter (Queen) out, we had to have somebody step up and tonight Bryant and Dylan were very good offensively."
The Panthers, 11-4 after a Saturday loss to Vandalia, will return to the floor this Friday at Sparta in hopes of completing a sweep their first time through the SIRR Mississippi.
Du Quoin, 7-7 after beating Eldorado on Saturday, will battle for the number two spot in the conference on Friday when they host Nashville at Anders Gymnasium.
"We're learning every day," Sveda said. "We're still trying to find ourselves sometimes offensively. We've got to do a better job of working off the inside game, working inside-out off of our post play, we didn't do a very good job of that. Once again, Pinckneyville did a great job of taking that away, give them the credit."
<u>JV battle goes OT, Panthers pull away</u>
Du Quoin led Friday's J-V contest 44-38 heading to the fourth quarter, but put in only two field goals in the final period as Pinckneyville rallied to force overtime, then pulled away for a 69-57 victory.
The game was tied at 53-53 when Du Quoin's Austin Mapps came away with a steal and drove to the bucket for a layup with 32 seconds to go in the fourth quarter. Pinckneyville had an answer though, as Caleb Dahn went up strong for the tying basket with 11.8 on the clock, ultimately forcing OT.
Once in the extra frame, it was all Panthers. Nolan Luke scored on back-to-back trips for PCHS, first on a stick-back then a pullup jumper with 3:04 remaining.
From there, Brian Taylor made a pair of free throws and Dalton Bathon went 4-for-6 at the stripe in the OT as Pinckneyville extended their lead. Trent Hicks and Chase Lazenby added late buckets and PCHS held Du Quoin to just two Matt Galik free throws in OT.
Taylor led the Panthers with 16 points, Lazenby had 11, Luke 10, Bathon 9, Dahn 8, Hicks 7, Brandon Edwards 6, and Luke Chapman 2. For Du Quoin, Daulton Beltz's 17 points were a team-high, M. Galik added 16, Daulton Donoghue 13, Mapps 6, Austin Mansker 4 and Will Galik 1.
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