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BASKETBALL: Panthers fight off Hornets 46-43

Posted December 27, 2011 10:00 pm

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[With both teams coming in at 2-0 in the Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference Mississippi Division, the winner of Friday night's battle at Nashville between the Hornets and the Pinckneyville Panthers knew they would sit atop the standings for the holiday break.

When the smoke cleared, the Panthers held on for a 46-43 victory that nearly slipped from their grasp as the Hornets all but erased an 11-point deficit with a minute left in the game.

"I thought we played good from the second quarter to two minutes to go in the fourth quarter," said PCHS head coach Bob Waggoner. "From that point on, I thought we almost let one get away from us. We really played pretty good for that stretch, we just have to make better decisions towards the end of a game."

Up 46-35 with a minute to play, the Panthers proceeded to miss the front end of three one-and-one free throw opportunities while allowing the Hornets to score eight unanswered points including a three-pointer from Scott Brown, who led NHS with 18 points.

Time ran out on the Hornets, however, and Pinckneyville escaped with a three-point win after scoring only four points in the opening quarter.

Down 12-6 in the second period, Pinckneyville stormed back with a 12-1 run to close out the half. Hunter Queen scored eight of the Panthers' dozen points in the spurt, three coming from downtown, three on a conventional three-point play, and two more at the line.

Nashville fought back for a tie on Brown's three with 3:00 to go in the third quarter, but Justin Bumann finished the period strong for the Panthers to put them up 28-24 with eight minutes to play.

A 7-0 run by the Panthers with under two minutes remaining put the game just out of reach for the Hornets. Chris Priebe had five points during the stretch including a three-point play with 1:24 left on the clock.

"We had a couple of defensive breakdowns that probably had a little bit to do with fatigue," said Hornets head coach Brad Weathers. "We lost a couple of kids and weren't able to get them out and get them as much rest as we would have liked to in a normal game situation. But give (Pinckneyville) credit, they executed well."

Waggoner agreed that the Panthers wore the Hornets out, but wasn't happy with the way his team finished the game.

"We've got to keep our effort up at all times," said Waggoner. "I think we wore Nashville down a little bit, but then we relaxed, and that was the thing that disappointed me was once we had the game under control we relaxed and made it a lot closer than it needed to be."

"It's hard to come in here, this is a tough place to play. There's been a lot of good teams come in here and not come out with a win and we'll take it."

Queen led PCHS with 14 points, Priebe and Payton Nippe each had 8, Dylan Hardin and Bryant Shute 6, Bumann 4.

With the win, Pinckneyville is tied with Du Quoin for the SIRR Mississippi lead at 3-0.

The Panthers (7-1, 3-0) resume play on Tuesday when the Duster Thomas Hoops Classic tips off at PCHS. Pinckneyville takes on Red Bud at 8:30 a.m. and Teutopolis at 8:30 pm.

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