Pinckneyville Survives at Anna-Jonesboro
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[ Dustin Winter scored 25 of his team's 51 points and Pinckneyville closed out their regular season schedule with a 51-41 win at Anna-Jonesboro on Friday night.
The Wildcats held the lead early in the fourth quarter on their senior night, but a late 8-0 run by the Panthers after a technical foul call on A-J made the difference in the ball game.
"We had some foul trouble, we didn't attack the zone very well at times, but we found a way in the fourth quarter to come up with the win," said Pinckneyville head coach Bob Waggoner. "It took us about three quarters to figure out what we wanted to do."
Cody Sims completed a three-point play and Drew Dudek hit a three-pointer near the end of the first period to give the Panthers a 13-8 lead after one, but turnovers and missed opportunites let the Wildcats stay within striking distance.
Nathan Morton found Winter for the assist and a 15-11 lead, but it took Dudek's three just before the halftime buzzer to keep Pinckneyville ahead at the break, 20-17, as the Panthers struggled to find their post presence against the Wildcats' zone.
Winter's three put the Panthers up 25-20, but fouls began to plague the visiting team as they were whistled for the first five hacks of the third quarter.
Luke Partridge's three-pointer completed a 7-0 Wildcats run that gave them a 27-25 lead, but Winter responded with a three of his own to put Pinckneyville back up by one.
Sims was called for a foul as time expired in the third, the ninth whistle against the Panthers in the period against just one for the Wildcats.
"Thats something we came through, we didn't foul out," Waggoner said.
The turning point of the contest came near the midway point of the fourth quarter when a traveling violation called on the Wildcats triggered a technical foul as well, and Winter sank both free throws to start the difference-making run for the Panthers.
Morton followed with a rebound and putback, and Dudek hit a bucket before Winter added two more free throws with 1:45 left in the game to give Pinckneyville a 43-34 advantage.
"It's too late in the year to be trying to figure out if we're going to get any post play or not," said Waggoner. "Nathan Morton had a nice rebound and a putback, but other than that, there wasn't much post play."
A-J struggled to stay in the game from that point on, and the Panthers made enough free throws down the stretch to move into next week's Regional tournament on a positive note.
"We're going to have to put together 32 minutes Tuesday night or our season's over," Waggoner said.
Pinckneyville (21-6) hosts Tuesday night's Regional semifinal against Red Bud with tipoff set for 7:30 p.m.
Winter's 25 points led all scorers, Dudek added 11, Derek Kellerman 5, Morton 4, Sims 3, Bryant Lively 2 and Shay Kellerman 1.
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