The Pinckneyville Lady Panthers went 3-1 in the Hamilton County Lady Foxes Basketball Tournament to share the title with Fairfield.
Pinckneyville clinched the share of the title Saturday with a 44-41 win over Zeigler-Royalton-Christopher.
“I am really proud of our girls bringing home a share of the tournament championship,” said Pinckneyville coach Alan Engelhardt. “We were by far the most inexperienced group heading into the tournament, but we did a good job of competing and brought home some hardware. Katelyn Mayer had an outstanding tournament, leading us in scoring and rebounding, and was named to the all-tournament team.”
The Lady Panthers trailed 7-6 in the first quarter but fought back to hold a 14-13 halftime lead. In the second half, Pinckneyville outscoreed ZRC 30-28 for the narrow win.
“We did a great job of defending in the first half, taking away the dribble drive and getting ZRC into bad situations where they turned the ball over,” said Engelhardt. “We needed to do a better job of capitalizing off their turnovers, however, as we missed several layups. Offensively, in the first half, we did too much standing around. In the second half, we did a much better job of moving on offense and got some good looks in the paint.”
Katelyn Mayer scored 17 to lead Pinckneyville, while Heather McDaniel added 12 and Haley Simpson had nine.
Fairfield 55, Pinckneyville 47
A big first quarter deficit proved to be the difference Friday in the Lady Panthers’ loss to Fairfield 55-47.
“We dug ourselves a hole from the beginning that we couldn't climb out of,” said Pinckneyville coach Alan Engelhardt. “We fought back from 10 down in the third quarter to tie it only to let their lead get back to eight at the end of the quarter, and again in the fourth quarter, we got it back to even, but could never take the lead. Fairfield hit 17-of-20 from the foul line and made us pay for our mistakes and fouls.”
The Lady Panthers trailed 11-4 in the first quarter and 24-16 at the break. Both teams scored 31 points in the second half.
“Katelyn Mayer had a very good game for us tonight, putting up 17 points and pulling down 9 rebounds,” said Engelhardt. “Alyssa Hirsch gave us a big boost off the bench, adding nine points in the fourth quarter.”
Pinckneyville 37, Hamilton County 36
Haley Simpson sank a mid-range jump shot with under five seconds remaining to give Pinckneyville a dramatic 37-36 win over Hamilton County Thursday night.
“We got off to a really good start, jumping out to a 10-0 lead with 5:45 to play in the first, but after that point, we got out of control on both the offensive and defensive ends trying to do too much,” said Pinckneyville coach Alan Engelhardt. “We got into some serious foul trouble for the remainder of the half and struggled to score, but our bench did a good job on the defensive end to keep us in the game. We came back out in the third quarter and really played good basketball for the entire period. We ran our offense through the post and got some scores in the paint.”
The Lady Panthers led 12-11 at the end of the first quarter but trailed 20-15 at halftime. Pinckneyville outscored Hamilton County 18-9 in the third, while the Lady Foxes out-pointed the Lady Panthers 7-4 in the fourth.
Katelyn Mayer led Pinckneyville with 11 points, while Simpson finished with eight.
Pinckneyville 69, Gallatin County 31
Pinckneyville outscored Gallatin County in every quarter including 31-10 in the second half en route to a 69-31 victory November 22.
The Lady Panthers led 25-15 at the end of  the opening quarter and 38-21 at the break.
“It took us a little while to get our defensive bearings, but once we did, I thought we defended pretty well,” said Pinckneyville coach Alan Engelhardt. “Offensively, we did a great job of sharing the ball, putting all 10 girls into the scoring column and having nine girls score five or more points. We are a pretty inexperienced group, so this was a great jumping off point for us.”
Katelyn Mayer paced the Lady Panthers with 13, while Heather McDaniel,  Britney Thomas and Haley Simpson all had eight points in the season opening win for Pinckneyville.