BASKETBALL: PCHS escapes weekend with a split
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Nashville remained undefeated after a hard-fought, heavily-whistled road win over Pinckneyville on Friday night, shutting down the Panthers on offense for a 41-29 victory.
The game featured a total of 37 personal fouls (22 in the first half) and 35 turnovers (23 by the Panthers).
"You can't have guards that constantly turn the ball over," said Pinckneyville head coach Bob Waggoner. "You hold a team to 41 points, you keep yourself in the game, you're doing everything you want defensively, and you don't get any breaks offensively. You can say what you want about defense, but you have to score, and we just couldn't score."
The Hornets offense had no such problems in the early-going, as Tyler Meyer and Sam Brown hit open three-pointers and Nashville led 12-7 after the first quarter.
The fouls started to pile up in the second period, however, as Hornets Brown, Donovan Holle, and Jared Meier were all saddled with three personals by halftime.
The Panthers took advantage, pulling to within one on a three-point play by Kyle Lamb, but free throws and a three-pointer from Zack Fieber kept the Hornets out in front 21-17 at the break.
Sam Brown and Scott Brown each connected from downtown in the third as the Pinckneyville offense struggled to maintain possession and find open looks, scoring just four points in the period and trailing 30-21 heading to the fourth.
Lamb hit a bucket with 3:10 to play to make it 33-25, and the Panthers were forced to start fouling to stay in the game as the quicker Hornets were content to run some clock.
"We're going to face a lot of teams quicker than us," said Waggoner.
"They're a good team, let's face it, they're undefeated. It's not like they haven't played anybody, it's not like they're not senior-oriented and they're not good, and they're not able to be successful."
The strategy yielded a number of misses, but Pinckneyville's offense turned it over twice within thirty seconds late in the game to allow the Hornets to hold on.
"If you can't score in the 40's, you're not going to win very many games," Waggoner said.
"We held them to 41, we fouled with 4:00 to go to try to keep us in the game because they were just going to hold (the ball). I thought the guys executed that, (but) we just wasted a ton of opportunites in both halves to score and to be in the lead and just didn't come through."
Holle led the Hornets (8-0, 2-0) with 11 points, Sam Brown and Meyer added 9 each.
PCHS was led by Lamb's dozen points, Brueggeman pitched in 6, Dylan Hardin 4, Chris Priebe, Payton Nippe and Christian Shopinski 2 and Hunter Queen 1.
Pinckneyville attempted only 24 field goals, making 10 of them for 42% while the Hornets were 12-for-31 (39%). The Panthers were 9-of-16 (56%) at the line, but did not attempt a free throw in the second half. Nashville made 11-of-21 (52%) at the charity stripe.
<u>Lamb carries Panthers past Herrin</u>
Kyle Lamb scored the last four points of the game from the free throw line and Pinckneyville held on for a 53-50 win over Herrin on Saturday behind the senior's 22-point effort.
"Give (Lamb) credit, after our walkthrough he stayed in here and spent a little extra time trying to get more loft on the ball (on his free throws)," said PCHS head coach Bob Waggoner. "All that credit goes to him, and working on them, and trying to get better at something he finds as a weakness."
Lamb swatted a Tiger shot to start a break the other way ending in a bucket by Brueggeman, then used his feet in the paint for back-to-back scores of his own as the Panthers had control early up 16-4.
"We talked about all day with (Herrin), get the ball in the middle of the floor and you'll have success and in the first half we really got the ball inside," said Waggoner.
Herrin got the last four points of the first period, however, then JoJo Hart hit a three-pointer with 5:20 left in the half to cut the Pinckneyville lead to 23-17.
Brueggeman started and ended another 6-0 PCHS run late in the half to give his team an eleven-point advantage, but Jakob Caldwell gave the Tigers a boost with a three-pointer just before the break.
Herrin picked up the intensity after halftime, forcing turnovers in the third period to assist an 8-0 run to take the lead on Bobby Mannie's steal and breakaway.
The lead changed hands six times over the next seven minutes, with DeMario Harris putting the Tigers up 50-49 with inside of two minutes to play.
Lamb was fouled, hit both shots to give the Panthers a one-point lead, then the Pinckneyville defense forced two difficult shot attempts that fell off for the Tigers.
Lamb ended up with the ball with 1.6 seconds to play and was hacked again, but knocked down both shots before Herrin's last attempt at an inbounds play hit the new scoreboard hanging above center court at Thomas Gymansium, turning the ball back over to the Panthers.
"I'm very proud of the kids," Waggoner said. "I thought that they battled through a tough ball game with a lot of highs and lows."
"I really thought that Steve Brueggeman and Kyle Lamb were our two go-to guys and they stepped up and really gave us an opportunity to get a win."
Brueggeman joined Lamb in double figures with 16 points, Nippe added 7, Queen 3, Shopinski and Bryant Shute 2, and Hardin 1.
"We're starting to understand things," Waggoner said. "In the first half tonight guys did little things like when they caught the ball from one side they reversed pivot, then they looked inside then back out and not just right back to where the ball came from."
"That may not sound like much but it makes the game so much easier, it takes you away from pressure and gives you open lanes to the basket."
Pinckneyville shot 44% (21/48) from the floor and made 10-of-13 at the free throw line (77%) in the game. The Tigers made 21-of-46 (46%) field goals but only 4-of-11 (36%) at the line.
The Panthers (3-3, 1-1) are on the road this Tuesday at Du Quoin, where fans are urged to arrive early due to contrustion taking place on DHS' Anders Gymnasium.
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