GIRLS BASKETBALL: PCHS fights foul trouble, but beats Vienna
The Lady Panthers finished off their Herrin Holiday Hoops tournament on Wednesday night with a win, knocking off Vienna 51-41 with big offensive games by Andrea Morgan and Raygan Yates.
Morgan, who along with teammate Sophie Keith was named to the all-tournament team, pumped in 18 points, 9 of them coming on first-quarter three-pointers. Yates did all of her damage after the first quarter, scoring 16 points.
"They both shot the basketball very, very well for us," said Pinckneyville head coach Alan Engelhardt. "That puts such strain on the defense, they ended up basically face-guarding Andrea after that start and she still ended up with a couple baskets later on. When they took Andrea away, Raygan did a nice job scoring the ball, I thought both of them played very well the entire tournament."
PCHS had to fight through some foul trouble in the opening half as five players had picked up two fouls before the break. That left a lot of bench players on the floor to see extended minutes, but none the less, the Lady Panthers took a 23-22 lead into the break.
"We had a grouping that we don't use a lot in practice in the game together there in the first half, so our offense stalled a little bit," Engelhardt said. "I will say this, the kids who came off the bench, a lot of them probably were thinking they weren't going to play coming into tonight, and they did a good job of holding serve."
One of those players seeing extra floor time was Mariah Clark, who had buckets late in the third and early in the fourth, both on assists from Keith.
"Mariah shows flashes at times," said Engelhard. "The thing I was happy with was seeing her score a little bit tonight. Sophie and her worked well together, Sophie picked up a couple assists and got her some nice baskets, and Mariah got a little confidence from that."
A 9-2 run by the Lady Panthers to start the fourth period put Pinckneyville in front with some cushion. PCHS made 11-of-14 free throws in the final frame to stay in the lead.
Keith added 8 points for Pinckneyville, Clark had 4, Mayci Doerflein 3 and Kiya Hagene 2.
The Lady Panthers (11-7) host Carterville on January 5.
Christ Our Rock Lutheran 36, Lady Panthers 33 (Tuesday):
CORL defeated Pinckneyville 36-33 in Tuesday's game at Herrin, getting 14 points from Caroline Boehne and 12 from Georgia Agan.
Morgan led the Lady Panthers with 9 points, Keith had 8, Yates 6, Doerflein 4, Hagene 3, Caitlyn Anderson 2 and Taylor Smith 1.