BASKETBALL: Robinson's 27 carries Sparta over Lady Panthers
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Jessica Robinson continued her dazzling play with 27 points last Thursday as Sparta's girls topped Pinckneyville 60-52.
"We knew coming in that Robinson would be a handful to stop, but we didn't do a very good job on her supporting cast, giving them lay-ups and free-throws," said Pinckneyville girls basketball head coach Alan Engelhardt.
Taylor Cicardi led eight different Lady Panthers that scored with 22 points, but PCHS struggled offensively in the second quarter and fell behind.
"We had ourselves in a decent position after the first quarter, but we continually shot ourselves in the foot in the second quarter, missing 13 shots in the lane," Engelhardt said.
"We can't afford to leave that many points off the board, and when we don't score, we allow them to run as well as stopping us from setting up our press."
Maddy Keith added 13 points for Pinckneyville, Dani Jenkel 6, Katrina Henson 5, Dani Schoenbacher and Kortney Crawford 2, Taylor Kuhnert and Lindsey Winter 1.
"We battled back in the fourth quarter, cutting the lead to 3 with 4 minutes to play, but we came down and turned the ball over the next three possessions," said Engelhardt.
"We have the potential to get better; we just need to keep working to find some consistency in both output and effort."
The Lady Panthers (4-4, 1-2) finally get a home game on Tuesday when Du Quoin comes calling to Thomas Gymnasium (6:30 p.m. JV, 7:45 p.m. Varsity).