GIRLS BASKETBALL: Lady Panthers control tempo in win over Lady Indians

Pinckneyville played well with a lead and controlled the tempo for the majority of Tuesday night's girls basketball game at Du Quoin, defeating the Lady Indians 46-35 to improve to 5-2 in SIRR Mississippi Division play. DHS fell to 1-6.

"We would like to have played a little more up-tempo," said Du Quoin head coach Shawn File. "(Monday against Sesser-Valier) was a fun flow, tonight the flow wasn't there. (Pinckneyville) dictated tempo tonight. They didn't want to get in to a running match with us, and rightfully so."

Lady Panthers head coach Alan Engelhardt wouldn't argue that, admitting "we're not going to be an up-and-down team, it is not our strength."

"We did a good job managing it," Engelhardt said, "and a nice job rebounding, and hitting our outlet. Raygan (Yates) made some good decisions on when to push, when not to push. We got a couple run-out opportunities whenever they presented themselves, but for the most part we were patient, and that fit into what we were trying to do to get some post touches. I thought feeding the post was probably the biggest thing we did offensively."

Most of those post opportunities went to Keelyn Stein, who led PCHS with fifteen points, nine of them coming in the third quarter.

"We thought we had an advantage (with Stein), a senior kid, she's stronger," said Engelhardt. "She did a good job sealing, but we did a good job getting her the ball in a position where she could take it up and score. There wasn't a ton of work after the catch to be done."

Pinckneyville led 26-18 just moments into the second half when Megan Bagley hit a three-pointer for the Lady Panthers. Alaina Caldwell answered right back to bring Du Quoin back within five. The two teams traded threes a couple more times in the period and PCHS headed to the fourth up 38-31.

Caldwell scored with 7:21 to play to make it a five-point game again, but then Pinckneyville's Kearsten Opp drove the lane for a three-point play and connected from behind the arc for a three with 4:55 to go, ballooning the lead up to eleven.

"Kearsten, we've talked about it in practice she's making better decisions every day," Engelhardt said. "Tonight she drove in the lane where earlier in the year she might have fired up some shots, forced them a little bit. But she got in there, realized it wasn't there, kicked out, and then got her own opportunity back a lot of times where she could go play off the dribble drive, or a nice set three."

From there, the Lady Panthers took care of the ball on offense and ate up the game clock while dominating the glass.

"Pinckneyville always rebounds well, Alan does a good job with that," File said. "They always check off well. We missed shots inside tonight, I don't know if we were a little tired from playing on back-to-back nights, but we played hard. We left some lay-ups out there, and in a low-scoring game like this was tonight, that's the difference."

K. Opp joined Stein in double figures for the Lady Panthers with fourteen points. Bagley had six, Mayci Doerflein four, Andrea Morgan three, and Yates and Caitie Opp each had two.

For the Lady Indians, Caldwell's fifteen points led the way. Tarynn Mays had seven, Kate Smith and Sadie Day have five, Kat Robison two and Mackenzie Jackson one.

Pinckneyville (9-16, 5-2) hosts Anna-Jonesboro on Thursday when Du Quoin (7-20, 1-6) travels to Sparta.