In a hard fought game on a hostile court, the Pinckneyville Lady Panthers claimed its third consecutive Hamilton County tournament title Saturday with a 59-55 victory over Hamilton County Saturday.
Emily Miller scored a game high 21 points to lead the Lady Panthers to the win despite being outscored 34-30 in the second half.
“It was good to see us find a way to win in an extremely hostile environment,” said Pinckneyville coach Alan Engelhardt. “In an extremely physical game, we battled through a lot of contact, and Emily Miller and Katrina Henson hit six huge free throws down the stretch.  As a team, we didn’t give the kind of defensive effort we need in order to be successful down the line though.  We stood straight up and down to let drivers go around us and we didn’t do a very good job of rotating.  Emily Miller had a big-time game, with 21 points, seven rebounds, six assists, and four steals.  Mo Ramsey, Kortney Crawford, and Katrina Henson all did a great job coming off the bench to play a lot of productive minutes for us. When we had some starters who didn’t want to guard, those three gave us good effort on the defensive end along with putting together nice offensive games as well.  Winning our third straight tournament championship was a nice accomplishment.  Now it is time to head into the regular season and see if we can improve on some of our weaknesses.”
Pinckneyville trailed 17-16 at the end of the first quarter, but outscored Hamilton County 13-4 in the second for a 29-21 lead at halftime.
Hamilton County fought back to outscore Pinckneyville 16-13 in the third and 18-17 in the fourth, but Pinckneyville’s clutch free throws down the stretch was the difference.
Ramsey finished with 11 points for Pinckneyville. Miller, Maddy Keith and Taylor Cicardi all made the all-tournament team for Pinckneyville. This also marked the third time Miller made the all-tournament team in Hamilton County.