Boys Prep Basketball: Panthers continue to defy adversity, beat Sparta
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ After Nathan Morton was sidelined with a broken wrist on Saturday, Pinckneyville's first and second scoring options had both been taken away from their varsity basketball team for the time being. The Panthers picked up wins in games last week at Waterloo and against Freeburg short six players, but the lack of Morton's presence was sure to be the straw that finally broke the camel's back.
Instead, it was another feather in the cap for the remaining players, the called-up underclassmen and their coaches, as the short-handed Panthers shocked an antagonizing home Sparta crowd by beating the conference-rival Bulldogs 59-57 on Tuesday night behind 21 points from Jake Bathon and another strong offensive effort from Shay Kellerman and Kyle Lamb.
Trailing by as many as seven in the fourth quarter, Pinckneyville stormed back to take the lead over a two-minute span near the end of the game with the help of outstanding pressure defense.
"Never underestimate the heart of a Panther," said Pinckneyville coach Bob Waggoner after the emotional win. "I don't know how we're doing it, but we're doing it, and I love it, I'm ecstatic. I'm so happy our guys are playing the way they're playing."
Both offenses struggled to find points in the early-going,. In fact, with the score tied 3-3, the two squads combined for six consecutive turnovers in just over a minute and a half before Sparta coach Richie Williams (formerly an assistant at PCHS) called for timeout with 3:37 left in the first quarter.
"We're missing 40 points out of our lineup," said Waggoner. "I wasn't sure if we could score 40 points tonight."
The score remained knotted midway through the second, but David Sams hit a three-pointer for the Bulldogs that seemed to get the home crowd going.
The Panthers responded though, as Bathon scored the other way just twelve seconds later, and Hunter Queen hit a pair of free throws that put Pinckneyville up 24-23 with two minutes left in the half.
Weslen Kiner's eight first half points in the paint helped the Bulldogs regain the lead 29-25 at the break, and the home team very slowly began to build on that lead in the third.
Three-pointers from Dartanus White and Blake Shelton extended the lead to five, and with a minute and a half to go in the third, Sparta looked to hold for the final shot, milking away almost all of the clock before both teams missed opportunities to score.
Down seven points with just over four minutes to go in the contest, Pinckneyville's young group began their comeback. Lamb and Bathon cut into the lead at the free throw line before Bathon drained a three from the corner with 2:57 to play.
White was called for a travel with 2:42 on the clock, and Kellerman gave Pinckneyville their first lead since before the half, 52-51.
An over-and-back violation prompted a timeout from the Sparta bench to try to stop the bleeding, but the Panthers kept coming.
Kellerman found an open lane and sank the layup with 1:38 left to make it 54-51, but a desperate three from Maurice Austin kept Sparta alive with 20 seconds to play.
Lamb would come up huge in the post on the next trip for the Panthers, though, getting fouled and sinking the basket to set up a three-point play with 13.8 on the clock.
"We challenged him at halftime, he did a much better job in the second half," Waggoner said.
Kellerman added two free throws with 4.4 to go after a Sparta miss, rendering a buzzer-beating Bulldogs' three meaningless.
The Panthers shot 55% from the field while committing only 10 turnovers. Kellerman (18 points) and Lamb (13) joined Bathon in double digits for Pinckneyvile, White led Sparta with 15 points, but fouled out in the fourth quarter.
The game was originally scheduled for this past Friday, but weather forced a postponement until Tuesday.
Pinckneyville is off the rest of this week and does not play again until Monday, January 18 at the Benton Invitational Tournament, where they have gone a perfect 5-0 the last five years running and have won 29 consecutive games over the last six B.I.T.'s. The Panthers open the tournament at 6:00 p.m. against Okawville.
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