BASKETBALL: West Frankfort ends Lady Panthers' streak
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Thirteen was apparently unlucky for the Lady Panthers, as their winning streak came to a halt on Tuesday night at the West Frankfort Mid-Winter Classic with a 46-42 loss to the host Lady Redbirds. Pinckneyville had won thirteen consecutive games heading into the contest, but couldn't overcome a massive amount of turnovers last night.
"I hope we learned a lesson tonight that we have to play hard every night, no matter who we are playing, or we will get beat," said PCHS girls' head coach Alan Engelhardt.
"During our win streak we had played very hard and did a lot of the little things well, but tonight every loose ball or tough rebound went to West Frankfort."
The Lady Panthers fell behind 27-19 at the break, but fought back during the third quarter to lead 34-31 with eight minutes to play.
Turnovers eventually caught up with Pinckneyville though, and the Lady Redbirds outpaced PCSH 15-8 in the final frame.
"We had 27 turnovers in the game and only 12 rebounds," said Engelhardt. "The only real positive for us was that we shot the ball from the foul line fairly well, going 20 for 27."
"Other than that, there isn't much positive to say."
Katrina Henson scored 14 points to lead the Lady Panthers, Taylor Cicardi had 11, Dani Jenkel 8, Maddy Keith 4, Lindsey Winter 3 and Taylor Kuhnert and Haley Simpson 1.
Pinckneyville (17-5, 1-1 at W.F.) is back at it on Thursday in the West Frankfort Mid-Winter Classic taking on Sesser-Valier at 6:00 p.m.