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Pinckneyville wins Benton Invitational Tournament title again

BENTON - The Pinckneyville Panthers are once again the Benton Invitational Tournament champions.

Pinckneyville finished a 5-0 sweep of the round robin's field with a 51-30 rout of the host Rangers on Monday night at Rich Herrin Gymnasium. Benton went 4-1.

The Panthers are now 21-2 overall with losses only to West Frankfort and Herrin. Those two teams played Saturday for the championship of the West Frankfort Mid-Winter Classic and Herrin was the victor.

Pinckneyville cruised through the tournament with an average margin of victory of 28.2 points per game. The Panthers averaged 59.8 points and held opponents to an average of 32.2 points.

"I thought for five games it's been as focused as a team we've had in a long time," said Pinckneyville coach Bob Waggoner. "I don't know what the win differential was, but I thought that defensively we were as good in every game that we played here, from the first one to the last one, really set the tone."

Dawson Yates, Hunter Riggins and Grant Tanner were named to the all-tournament team.

Yates scored 27 points against the Rangers and now has 998 for his career. The junior had 10 points at the half and put up 10 in the third quarter, then went 6 for 6 from the line in the fourth.

"He was shooting it really well and we were creating for him," Waggoner said. "A lot of those came off second-chance points where our kids kept the ball alive and kicked it back out to him. I was glad we were finding him off of it."

Yates was the only player in the championship game to reach double figures. Dre Scott, who Waggoner argued should have also made the all-tournament team, had seven points and Tanner added five. Riggins had three points in the fourth quarter.

Scott was credited with guarding Benton's Joey Craig, who scored 34 points against Meridian in Saturday's session. Scott had just two points against the Panthers, and those came in the fourth quarter.

Carson Lewis led Benton with nine points. Grant Gordon had seven and Mason Wills had five.

Pinckneyville led 8-3 after the first quarter and 15-9 at the half. The margin was 34-21 after three periods.

"Benton had a very competitive first half with us, but eventually I think our offense got better and theirs didn't and that was the difference in the game," Waggoner said. "I thought we were taking some quick shots (in the first half) because they were holding the ball so long. We said we need to reverse it a couple times and attack the rim. When we did that we started getting easy shots."

Pinckneyville hosts Sparta on Friday and then holds the Panther Showcase shootout event on Saturday. It starts at 10 a.m. and finishes with Pinckneyville playing Carbondale at 7 p.m.

"I still think we have our best basketball in front of us," Waggoner said. "I think these guys are going to continue to get better."

- Doug Daniels contributed to this report