BASKETBALL: Panthers halfway to first DTHC crown
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Pinckneyville used a 13-0 run early in the third quarter to pull away from Red Bud last night, eventually winning 59-38 to move to 2-0 in the 2010 Duster Thomas Hoops Classic held at PCHS.
The victory means the Panthers (5-4) can advance into Tuesday night's 8:30 p.m. championship if they can handle Metro East Lutheran at 11:30 a.m.
"I thought we shot the ball well because the shots were in rhythm and we worked the ball inside-out," said Panthers' head coach Bob Waggoner. "They were trying to double in the post, and we worked really hard on finding the weak-side man and making sure he's ready to shoot the ball and I thought that our patience was very good and our footwork was good in allowing us to make those."
Free throws and three-point shooting were the story for the Panthers, scoring all but two of their points either at the line or beyond the three-point arc during the first quarter to lead 14-7.
A 6-0 run for the Panthers near the midway point of the second threatened to break the game open for Pinckneyville, but the Musketeers had an 8-0 run of their own to close out the half and trail 26-23.
"I thought (Red Bud) did a nice job responding, but the point is you're trying to learn through the season," said Waggoner. "I could have taken a timeout to try to get us through it but I thought our guards needed to play through it and start learning how to get through that little bit of adversity and continue to play and improve in themselves and I thought that we did that."
Still ahead by three with 6:40 to go in the third, the Panthers got hot from behind the arc. Hunter Queen connected twice and Bryant Shute made another, prompting a timeout from the Red Bud bench.
Kyle Lamb hit a fadeaway and Queen a fastbreak layup, though, and the Panthers were up by sixteen with 4:00 to go in the period.
The Musketeers struggled the rest of the game to find a way back into it, and Pinckneyville was up to the challenge at the free throw line making 17-of-22 (77%) in the game, 8-of-10 in the second half.
Lamb led the Panthers with 22 points, Queen had 16, Shute 8, Christian Shopinski 7 and Brueggeman 6.
Phegley led the Musketeers (4-5, 1-1 DTHC) with a dozen, Adam Kunkel added 11.
<u>Pinckneyville 65, Lawrenceville 26</u>
In the tournament's first game at 8:30 a.m., the Panthers took care of business early and got some valuable rest late, pounding Lawrenceville 65-26 after holding the Indians to only 9 first half points.
"I thought we came ready to play against a team that we should win against, should have success against," Waggoner said. "I liked the fact that we started off coming out like we wanted to play and we were ready to play in an 8:30 (a.m.) game and took care of business."
Pinckneyville scored the first 12 points of the ball game with Brueggeman hitting a turnaround hook to start things off and Shopinski laying in an easy two with 4:12 to go in the period to cap off the run. Brueggeman had 8 points in the period and the Panthers led 19-4 after eight minutes.
Shute and Queen hit three-pointers early in the second quarter to complete an 8-0 Pinckneyville run, then Lamb put in six points during a 10-0 run that gave the Panthers a 37-6 lead.
Cole Hulen hit a three for Lawrenceville to stop the bleeding, but the would was reopened with a 9-0 run to end that half that included a three from Shute and the first varsity basket of sophomore Luke Miller's career.
"Overall our team did a good job of coming out today and playing together," said Waggoner. "A big lift early I thought was that our forwards really got on the boards and got us some second-chance opportunities."
Brueggeman led the way for Pinckneyville with 16 points, Shute finished with 13. Lamb added 8, Queen 6, Justin Bumann 5, C.J. Opp and Shopinski 4, Payton Nippe and Miller 3, Chris Priebe 2 and Dylan Hardin 1. Keegan Kellerman also saw action for the Panthers but did not score.
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