02-26-08
BY JACK BULLOCK
BENTON - In a contest that featured 52 personal fouls and a combined 37 turnovers between two regional winners – it is tough to find a bright spot.

However in Tuesday night's 66-59 win by the Pinckneyville Panthers at the Benton Class 1A Sectional – Colin Woodside provided that shining light.

Hitting all eight of his free throws and drilling home six big field goals – this senior guard helped lift his club to the sectional championship game slated for Friday night as the Panthers escaped Rich Herrin Gymnasium with a victory in front of nearly 2,500 fans.

Improving to 26-4 on the season – head coach Bob Waggoner is now two steps away from his first trip to the state finals as a head coach.

“Collin (Woodside) is one of those kids that when he walks onto the floor and you think he can't be one of your best weapons because he is a 145 lbs. But he is also the kid that is in the gym everyday,” said Coach Waggoner. “He stays after practice and works on his shot. He does the little things and he is a huge part of what we do.”

Woodside led all scorers with 21 points and helped pick up the slack with teammate and all-state candidate Kyle Cassity struggling on the offensive end.

Cassity – a 6-foot-6 senior guard/forward who is being courted by several Division One schools including St. Louis University – hit just 1-of-7 free throws and finished with 15 points.

However he had a team best 18 rebounds to go with 15 points.

Hayden Hicks added 11 points in the win as the Panthers will head back to Benton Friday night to take on either Mount Carmel or Perry County rival Du Quoin.

The Aces and Indians hook up Wednesday night.

“You have to give Harrisburg credit. They came in here and gave a gritty effort and had a great game plan,” said Waggoner. “They were by far playing their best basketball at the right time of the year and they did a fantastic job of keeping us from getting into our offensive sets.”

The Bulldogs saw their season end at 20-13 – which turned out to be a lot more wins than most people expected.

Matt Smithpeters – head coach Randy's son – finished his career with 16 points while sophomore teammate Reid Roper nailed four 3-pointers as a part of his 20 points.

“We kind of sputtered in the third quarter. We missed some shots that you just have to make in a game like this,” said Coach Smithpeters – whose team won this coach a seventh regional title last Friday night. “One thing that we didn't want to do was to get behind by any degree where they (Pinckneyville) could relax a little bit and run some clock. When you play a big games it is often the little things that make the difference.”

As the first quarter evolved into a slug-fest and sloppy mess – both clubs struggled to find any offensive rhythm.

Kendall Donaldson – a 6-foot-1 senior post player – scored a couple of early baskets underneath the basket.

Hi second score on a pass from Cain Sheldon gave the Bulldogs a 11-8 lead with 4:06 remaining.

However Donaldson spent most of his evening sitting on the Harrisburg bench saddled with fouls.

He and Matt Smithpeters picked up two fouls each in the early going and both headed to the pine with 3:53 to go.

“We are not very big to start with and when we got some early foul calls that put us in a pinch,” Smithpeters said. “I thought our big people were a factor early in the game. We were getting some shots down in the post. We wanted to look at doing that even more but the foul trouble took us out of that.”

Pinckneyville got its first lead of the game thanks to Cassity and Hicks.

Hicks scored on in transition taking a pass from Woodside after a steal in the open court.

Cassity followed that up with a baseline drive to make it 14-12.

Harrisburg got a rebound score from Russell Rambert to close the “hideous” first quarter even at 14.

Each team had nine turnovers in the first eight minutes to go with 15 total personal fouls.

“I was very happy with our effort,” added Smithpeters. “Without a doubt Pinckneyville is a good team and we knew that coming in. You have to give them credit for doing what they do.”

Roper got the Bulldogs going in the second quarter with a trio of 3-point shots from all over the floor.

His second one found the mark despite having Cassity in his face on the left wing which gave Harrisburg a 20-19 lead with 5:35 left.

Roper scored 14 of his points in the first half.

Woodside also found the mark three times in the second frame.

He hit a pair of in close shots – a short jumper in the paint in transition and also on a rebound basket.

He closed the quarter by nailing a long 3-pointer from the right corner to give the Panthers a 30-27 lead at the break.

Pinckneyville used an 8-1 run (the only significant scoring spree in the game) to close the third quarter.

Woodside scored four of the points while Cassity and Brandon Hardin each cashed in on offensive chances.

Woodside closed the streak with a 15-footer from the left wing with :06 left to end the third quarter scoring at 40-32 Panthers.

The lead reached double-figures for the first time when Miles Priebe finished a fast break with a lay in for a 44-34 lead with 6:48 remaining.

Hicks added a score for Pinckneyville and then Cassity tipped in a missed free throw by Hardin to push the scored to 48-35 and forced a Harrisburg timeout.

“They (Pinckneyville) had a couple of big rebounds and that tip in off of a free throw hurt us,” added Smithpeters. “We would have liked to have won but we battled and I was happy with that. It just didn't happen tonight.”

After struggling from the free throw line in the first 30 minutes – Pinckneyville hit the big ones when they counted the most.

After Harrisburg got to within six points at 56-49 with 1:54 remaining – the Panthers closed the deal with 10 consecutive made free throws.

Woodside hit four of those charities in the foul line run.

Matt Smithpeters closed his final prep basketball game with a pair of late 3-pointers.

Both teams shot well from the field with Pinckneyville netting 23-of-40 shots while Harrisburg finished 18-of-39.

Thanks to Roper and Smithpeters the Bulldogs went 6-of-9 from behind the arc.

Pinckneyville outrebounded the Dawgs 26-24 while Harrisburg finished their season with 19 turnovers compared to 18 from the Panthers.

“Our kids did a great job of gutting through this and made the big plays late, especially rebounds and we made the free throws late,” added Waggoner. “We came away with the win.”

Harrisburg (59) - M. Smithpeters 3 2 4-6 16, Hodge 0 0 0-0 0, Roper 1 4 6-7 20, Boatright 1 0 0-0 2, Owen 0 0 0-0 0, Donaldson 4 0 0-0 8, Sheldon 0 0 4-4 4, Rambert 2 0 2-6 6, Price 1 0 1-4 3.
2FG-12, 3FG-6, FT-17-27, PF-29.
Pinckneyville (66) - Logan 0 0 0-2 0, Hicks 3 1 2-3 11, Cassity 7 0 1-7 15, Hardin 3 0 3-7 9, Woodside 5 1 8-8 21, Rushing 1 0 1-2 3, Smith 0 0 0-0 0, Priede 2 0 3-4 7.
2FG-21, 3FG-2, FT-18-33, PF-23.
Fouled Out - Rushing - Pinckneyville; Rambert - Harrisburg.
Technical Fouls - None.