12-23-05
BY JACK BULLOCK
PINCKNEYVILLE - Being a scrappy bunch will only carry a team so far.

Chester head coach John Blair found out that it took his Yellow Jackets midway into the second quarter before the talent of the Pinckneyville Panthers wore his club down.

Like a ship sailing off following the steady river current, the Panthers gradually pulled away from their SIRR Mississippi Division rivals to add a 60-30 victory at Duster Thomas Gym on Friday night to their ledger.

Nine first half turnovers by the Jackets all turned into Panther points as Chester saw its record slip to 0-10, 0-3 in the Mississippi.
Pinckneyville improved to 7-1 overall, 3-0 in the conference with the slowly convincing win.

"I thought we played pretty well defensively tonight, but we need to do a better job on the offensive end," said Blair. "We didn't quit tonight and we haven't all season. Our kids have a lot of desire and they want to get better."

Pinckneyville stepped out and connected on three of their first four shots, all three from long range.

Kyle Cassity, Skyler Graskewicz and Lyle Winter all hit 3-pointers in staking the Panthers to a 9-0 advantage.

However Chester managed to stay close.

Dave Lutz, the Yellow Jackets 6-foot-4 senior center, scored six of his eight points to keep Chester within range.

His last basket of the run was on a nice spinning move in the lane that made the score 18-12 Pinckneyville with 6:40 to go before the half. But this brief battle never escalated into a war, as that was as close as these Cats would allow Chester the rest of the contest.

These Panthers shined most of the night as brightly as the finish on the court named after Pinckneyville head coach Dick Corn.

Six-foot-five senior Austin Winter scored 10 points for the Panthers with six of those coming during the second quarter run that gave Pinckneyville a comfortable lead.

Back-to-back baskets by Winter, on a rebound basket and a short bank shot in the lane gave the Columbia Blue clad hosts a 31-16 lead at the 2:39 mark.

Chester got seven points from senior Tyler Search in the frame.
However Graskewicz closed the quarter strong for Pinckneyville with a bucket and a pair of free throws. The two clubs left the court with the score 35-21 Panthers.

Pinckneyville used a 12-4 spurt to bury the Yellow Jackets in the third quarter.

Zach Hawkins got into the scoring act, hitting the boards for three offensive rebound baskets for six points.

His final shot in that run made it 47-26 Panthers heading into the fourth quarter.

Hawkins, Brandon Hardin and Branden Morris each scored four points in the final eight minutes.

Pinckneyville scored the last eight points of the game to reach the final margin.

Lyle Winter led the balanced Panthers with 12-points including a couple of 3-pointers.

Austin Winter and Hawkins each added 10 for Pinckneyville.

Chester got nine points from Search, eight points from Lutz and seven points from Chris Kern.

Pinckneyville shot well from the field, hitting exactly 50 percent from the field overall (25-of-50) and were 4-of-13 from behind the arc.

The hosts outrebounded Chester 27-17. Included in those totals were nine offensive rebounds by the Panthers. Four of them resulted in put back scores, clearly demonstrating one of several Pinckneyville strengths.

Chester wasn't nearly as proficient from the floor, hitting just 9-of-33 shots from the field.

Coach Blair's club can point to 19 total turnovers and those rebound baskets that they surrendered as the difference in the game.

"One of the things that we talked about today was that we need to start getting better at the little things, the fundamentals and we need to keep talking about it and keep working," added Blair. "I keep telling them that one of these days it will all come together and we need to take the good out of these games."

Chester is idle for the holidays, heading back into action January 3 at home against Shawnee.

Pinckneyville is one of the Class A favorites at the Carbondale Holiday Tournament next week as they will play Trico in the opening round on Tuesday.

	1	2	3	4		Final
Chester	8	13	5	4	-	30
Pinckneyville	16	19	12	13	-	60

Chester (30) - Kahre 1 0 0-0 2, S. Kern 0 0 0-0 0, Zang 1 0 0-0 2, C. Kern 2 0 3-3 7, Search 2 0 5-7 9, Buatte 0 0 0-0 0, McGree 0 0 0-0 0, Mathis 0 0 2-2 2, Lutz 3 0 2-4 8.
2FG-9, 3FG-0, FT-12-16, PF-10.
Pinckneyville (60) - Morris 2 0 0-0 4, Hicks 2 0 2-2 6, L. Winter 2 2 2-4 12, Cassity 2 1 0-0 7, Graskewicz 0 1 2-2 5, Hardin 2 0 0-0 4, Woodside 1 0 0-0 2, A. Winter 5 0 0-0 10, Rushing 0 0 0-0 0, Hawkins 5 0 0-0 10. 2FG-21, 3FG-4, FT-6-8, PF-14.
Fouled Out - None.
Technical Fouls - None.