Girls Prep Basketball: Sparta Slows Down Lady Panthers

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Following what's believed to be its fastest start ever to the girls basketball season, Pinckneyville Community High School's Lady Panthers are now on a two-game loss skid.

PCHS (6-2) fell to 1-2 in River-to-River Conference play after a disappointing 55-31 home floor loss to Sparta early Saturday evening.

The Lady Panthers visit a 7-2 Du Quoin squad Tuesday night.

"I was worried that our loss to Nashville would have

a carry-over effect, and it did. For the first time this year, I

thought we didn't play very hard," Lady Panthers coach Alan Engelhardt said. "We competed until we were down a couple of baskets, and then we gave a here we go again look and as a

team, we laid down."

Sparta (6-0, 3-0) turned a 13-9 first quarter margin into a 32-16 lead by halftime and the Lady Panthers could get no closer.

By the end of three periods, the margin had reached 47-27.

Jessica Robinson had a game-high 21 points for the Lady Bulldogs with Emily Miller's nine topping Pinckneyville.

" Right now, we are forcing too many contested

shots, and not letting the offense come to us, and defensively, we are allowing things to happen too easily for the other team," Engelhardt said. Sparta is a good team, and because we gave them so many undefended run-outs and stick-backs, we were blown out. You can't give good teams free points."

Dani Jenkel added seven points for PCHS .