BOYS BASKETBALL: Jr. Panthers dismiss Meridian to advance
Free throw shooting nearly cost the Junior Panthers a Regional title a week earlier, but Pinckneyville was 17-for-20 at the stripe in the second half after making just 1-of-5 there in the first half of their 47-37 state quarterfinal win over Meridian on Friday afternoon at Rend Lake College.
The win puts the Junior Panthers into the SIJHSAA State semifinal round, which takes place this Tuesday night beginning with PJHS and Albion at 6:00 p.m. The winner of that game moves on to Friday's 7:30 p.m. championship, the loser falls into the third place game that same evening at 6:00 p.m
Pinckneyville was 3-for-14 on free throws against Sesser-Valier in their Regional championship win back on January 29, and picked up right where they left off in the first half on Friday before things changed at halftime.
"We've put a little time into free throw shooting since the issue we had last week," said PJHS head coach Haven Hicks. "We have good shooters, I think it was all mental. We play so fast it was hard to slow down and shoot a free throw for some of our guys, so it's a big adjustment. We worked this week on playing fast and then stopping fast and shooting free throws, not moving so much, not bouncing around."
Pinckneyville's Seth Witbracht broke a 2-2 tie with five minutes left in the first quarter with a jumper that sparked PJHS's 9-2 run to close out the opening period up 11-4, but Meridian bounced back with a couple three-pointers in the second and trailed just 20-16 at the half.
The Junior Panthers led by as many as eight in the third before Meridian's Eddie Robertson hit a three with 2:10 to go in the quarter. The Bobkits' Norris Young made it a three-point game heading into the final frame with his bucket as time wound down in the third.
Meridian had a chance to tie with a three early in the fourth, but Dylan Houghland came up with a steal and a lay-up to keep Pinckneyville on top. From there, the Junior Panthers did it at the free throw line, making 12-of-14 at the charity stripe in the final period to push their lead as big as thirteen points before a late three-pointer by Robertson.
"Our pressure bothered them a little bit," said Hicks. "We couldn't pick their dribbler, he was a good point guard, but our pressure made them play even faster than they wanted to play. That's the kind of ball we want to play. We want to play fast, we want to get up and down too. We like to make a couple more passes on the half court than they probably do, but speed-wise it played to our favor."
Houghland's 15 points led PJHS, Chase Fulkerson added 11, Dawson Yates 7, Devin Kitchen and Austin Alspach had 5 each, and Witbracht finished with 4. Robertson led Meridian with 16 points.