Boys Prep Basketball: Panthers advance to Regional Final
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ For the third time in the month of February, Pinckneyville and Chester met up in varsity boys basketball, and for the third time, the Panthers handed the Yellow Jackets a lopsided defeat.
The difference in last night's game was what was at stake, as Pinckneyville advanced into Friday's IHSA Regional Final with a 74-53 victory over the Regional host.
Among variables that didn't change, however, was the fight in the Chester team and the play of Jackets' guard Zach Lochhead, who led all scorers with 24 points.
"Same story as the last game," said Panthers' head coach Bob Waggoner. "We shot a lot of threes, played on the perimeter, didn't really got too much until we decided we were going to get the ball inside."
Lochhead hit a three-pointer with 3:24 to go in the first quarter, then scored an easy layup off of an inbounds play a minute later to give the Jackets an 11-6 lead.
The Panthers didn't take their first lead until the second quarter after toughening up on defense, as Shay Kellerman was good from beyond the arc to put Pinckneyville up 14-13 with 5:49 to go in the half.
"We didn't seem really motivated to play, we seemed like we could go through the motions and go ahead and get a win, and that's how we played most of the game," said Waggoner.
More Chester turnovers led to more Panther points, and Jake Bathon and Drew Dudek extended the lead with three pointers before the break, where Pinckneyville led 31-21.
The Jackets hung around in the third, hitting a couple of late three-pointers including a three-quarter court prayer to end the period by Aaron Grah that kept them alive down 50-42.
Pinckneyville was able to put the game away early in the fourth with a 9-0 run to start the quarter that included a three-point play from Nathan Morton.
Bathon led the way with 18 points for the Panthers, Kellerman (14), Dudek (13) and Morton (12) joined him in double figures. Kyle Lamb added 9 points off the bench.
Pinckneyville will now meet the winner of Tuesday's other Regional semifinal between Red Bud and Sparta, with the final taking place Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in Chester.
"We're going to have to have a lot better effort than we did here tonight," Waggoner said.
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