Pinckneyville ran out to a 31-11 first half lead and never looked back as the Lady Panthers cruised to a 69-39 victory Thursday night in nonconference action.

“It was really nice to see several girls look for offense tonight,” said Pinckneyville coach Alan Engelhardt. “We really attacked the rim well, both against the zone early in the game and later against man, which led to both points in the paint and some wide open threes on the perimeter. Our defense played pretty well tonight, keeping them on the perimeter and out of the paint until the fourth quarter.”

The Lady Panthers outscored Murphysboro 11-2 in the first quarter and 20-9 in the second for the 20-point halftime advantage.

Pinckneyville put the game out of reach in the third by outscoring Murphysboro 25-8.

Cheyanne Conner and Emily Miller each scored 15 points to pace the Pinckneyville attack, while Taylor Cicardi added 12.

“It was nice to see Cheyanne look to score, hitting for 15 points, including three three-pointers early in the game to jump-start us.  Lindsey Winter also did a nice job stepping up and hitting a couple threes to bump Murphysboro out of their zone.  I was also extremely proud of how both Emily Miller and Katrina Henson battled through the flu tonight after spending the afternoon throwing up.  We were already short-handed heading into the game and needed them to come through for us, which they did in a big way.  It was also good to see Taylor Cicardi come up with good games back-to-back, running the floor and scoring in the paint, which is a big step for her to become a really consistent threat.  It was also really nice for us to get heavy minutes from a couple of freshmen, with Heather McDaniel and Haley Simpson stepping in to deliver some big plays for us.  This was a really good team win, with nine of the 10 girls who played getting into the scoring column.”

With the win, Pinckneyville improved to 13-5 overall.