BOYS BASKETBALL: Hornets stay on top in Mississippi Division; Panthers rebound at Vandalia
The two remaining unbeaten Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference Mississippi Division squads squared off at a near-capacity Thomas Gymnasium in Pinckneyville on Friday night, and it was the top-ranked Nashville Hornets emerging with a 50-38 victory over the Panthers after closing out the game on a 16-6 run.
Nashville's Daniel Thorson led all scorers with 20 points while Pinckneyville's Tristan Fisher had 18 points, but did not score in the final quarter when the Panthers' offense scored only two points in the final three-plus minutes.
"(Fisher) had a good night be we didn't find him enough in the second half," said PCHS head coach Bob Waggoner. "I told our guards good players find the hot hand, and we kind of quit going to him and creating for him. We got a little stagnant, a little tired, we quit attacking the zone and creating angles for him to score."
"You've got to hit shots. We had a lot of good looks. You've got to come up with a way to make plays and not lose possessions."
Neither team led by more than five points during the first half, but the Hornets had a chance to put the game out of reach in the third quarter before the Panthers made a game out of it heading to the fourth.
Nashville led 34-25 with just under three minutes left in the third before Fisher hit a mid-range jumper and a wide open look at a three-pointer to close out the quarter for Pinckneyville. Tyler Rulevish drove into the lane for a bucket less than a minute into the fourth, and suddenly it was a two-point game at 34-32.
The Hornets were up four after Brian Taylor's pull-up jumper for the Panthers made it 40-36, but Dylan Mueller laid in an easy one with 3:52 to go, and Thorson sank the dagger from beyond the arc with 2:15 to play, putting Nashville up 45-36.
"He shoots that, I'm happy," Waggoner said of Thorson's late triple. "Ask (Nashville head coach) Brad Weathers if he wanted him to shoot that, he did not, I guarantee it. It's your night when those things happens. He hit it, we've got to live with the results. It was a back-breaker."
"The layups they got tonight were off of defensive breakdowns in transition. That's inexperience and some things where some guys are trying to make hustle plays and they end up hurting you. It's an aggressive play, but that doesn't make it an intelligent play. We've got to learn the difference."
Nolan Luke (7 points), Clayton Houghland (5), Rulevish (4), Taylor (2) and Adam Banach (2) also scored for Pinckneyville. Royce Newman joined Thorson in double figures for the Hornets (15-1, 4-0) with 10 points.
Pinckneyville won the junior varsity game on Friday night, 55-43, getting 13 points from Caulden Lazenby and a dozen from Jackson Brand.
The Panthers (13-4, 3-1) will battle Carterville (12-3, 3-1) on the road this coming Friday night with second place in the conference on the line.
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Pinckneyville 67, Vandalia 47 (Saturday):</span>
The Panthers owned the second half of Saturday's road game at Vandalia, outscoring the Vandals 37-22 after the break on their way to a 67-47 win.
Eight Pinckneyville players scored in the victory, including Nolan Luke who had a game-high 20 points. Fisher (15), Rulevish (8), Banach (7), Caleb Dahn (7), Taylor (6), Cale Jausel (2) and Alex Howard (2) also got in the book for the Panthers.