BASKETBALL: Hornets defend home court against Panthers
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Nashville completed the season sweep of Pinckneyville on Friday night, knocking off the Panthers 39-33 in a defensive war on the Hornets' home floor.
After trailing by ten at the break, the Panthers stormed back in the third and fourth quarters to cut the lead to two on a few occasions, but could never get back to even in the second half.
"We didn't play enough quality minutes tonight out of 32, we probably played 16, and we're not going to beat a team like Nashville doing that," said Panthers' head coach Bob Waggoner.
"I thought we played much more aggressive and I thought we attacked, it's nice to see that improvement, but it needs to be for 32 minutes. Give Nashville credit, they made more plays late, made one out of two free throws and we didn't, and gave themselves a chance to win."
Two of the area's best defensive teams were showing maximum effort early on as a turnover-laden first quarter came to an end with the Hornets up just 6-5.
Kyle Lamb went on the dribble for two early in the second for a 7-6 Pinckneyville edge, but it would be the Panthers' last lead of the evening.
Sam Brown buried a three-pointer from the corner, then following a Panther turnover, Zack Fieber drove in for a lay-up and an 11-7 Hornets' lead.
Fieber and Brown both connected from downtown near the end of the half as Nashville stormed ahead 20-10.
The Hornets were up 26-14 in the third when the Panthers started to show signs of life on offense.
C.J. Opp started a 7-0 run with a driving lay-up, then Christian Shopinski stole it away and drove for two. After a Hornets turnover, Dylan Hardin penetrated and drew a foul on his basket, then sank the extra point with 1:50 on the third quarter clock as the Panthers trailed by just five.
"I told (Hardin) after the game, I said I messed up, I should have played him more," admitted Waggoner. "I should have played him after we made our run because the guys we put back in went right back to what they were doing before. I thought he had a good ball game."
Lamb kicked the ball out to Queen for a three with 6:13 left in the game to bring the Panthers within two, but free throws by Tyler Meyer restored a four-point edge for the Hornets.
Steve Brueggeman hit a runner in the lane and cut it to two once more, but then Jared Meier gave the Hornets a five-point lead with his three-pointer mid-way through the period.
"That's a shot you want him to take," Waggoner said. "That's what I told our kids, you tip your hat, he made a tough shot, most of the time he's going to miss that. We still fought back and had a chance, but we had too many times where we came down and didn't get a good enough look."
Brueggeman cut it to two again later in the period with a floater in the lane, but the Hornets made just enough free throws in the closing moments to keep the struggling Pinckneyville offense from closing the gap any further.
"Offensively we were just stagnant and not very good," said Waggoner. "We played side-to-side and weren't very aggressive. In the second half our j-v kids came in and got us going."
No Panther finished in double figures, but three finished with seven points; Lamb, Hardin and Brueggeman. Queen added 5 points, Shopinski 3 and Opp and Payton Nippe 2. Fieber led the way for Nashville with 15 points.
"They're a good ball club," Waggoner said of the Hornets. "What we talked about was is this is a game that will sort of show where we're at heading into the postseason, this is the type of team you've got to play well against. 14 got to the rim on us continually.
<u>Panthers rebound at Carterville</u>
Following a tough road trip to Nashville, the Panthers had to rebound in a hurry as they headed to Carterville on Saturday night for another conference matchup.
Waggoner's bunch did just that, fighting off some fatigue for a 43-31 victory, closing the game out on a 16-5 run.
"I thought we played pretty tough, they were trying to pound the ball inside and our guys played pretty physical and strong," Waggoner said. "We don't make it easy on ourselves with some of those bad turnovers, but at the same time we just kept chugging at it and finding a way to get it done."
The Panthers were up 20-10 just before the half when Ryan Bonifield drained a three-pointer to beat the buzzer and cut the lead to seven.
Hardin's three-point play midway through the third period gave the Panthers their biggest lead at 27-16, but then Zach Watson connected for three to start a 10-0 run for Carterville that left the Pinckneyville lead at a single point.
"I thought there were a couple keys," said Waggoner. "At the half we gave up another three without recognition that probably with under three seconds to go, a kid standing at 22 feet, he's going to shoot it, you've got to adjust that."
"The other thing that was a turning point is when we got it to 11, for some reason we make a switch and leave our post player on Watson, who hits a three on us and they get it to eight and get a little momentum back."
Queen responded with a corner three with 6:03 to go, then Lamb added an and-one three-point play with 5:15 to play. After a Lions' turnover, Queen pulled up for two to complete a 7-0 spurt, which along with some late free throws and rebounding provided plenty of separation.
"I really thought Bryant Shute came up big at the end with some rebounds for us, because they were really crashing the boards," said Waggoner. "Watson and Bonifield are very athletic and I thought our guys tried to check them off but they were going around them, Shute came in there and got some big rebounds. Then Steve Brueggeman again, hitting free throws late, is big for us."
Lamb led the Panthers with 16 points, Queen and Brueggeman each had 10, Hardin and Shopinski 3 and Shute 1.
In the J-V contest, Pinckneyville improved to 11-4 (6-1) on the season with a 46-44 win.
Another big week stands in front of the varsity Panthers (17-7, 3-4) as they host Du Quoin (19-5, 6-1) on Friday night before a trip to Sparta (9-16, 2-5) on Saturday.
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