By Mark Schafer | The News-Review
FAIRFIELD – Outside of the second quarter, not many people are going to want to remember this game.
On the positive side, Thursday night’s 27-20 victory over Fairfield was a win that gave Pekin their eighth victory of the season. As an added bonus they were able to overcome a first quarter deficit.
Beyond that, both Fairfield and Pekin might be trying to erase any footage of the game that is available.
“We started to take our time breaking the press in the second quarter,” said Neil Hartz, the head coach for the Pekin girls basketball team. “We tried to rush too fast into things in the first quarter, but once we slowed things down in the second quarter, we never really had a problem with it. The girls have come a long way in breaking the defense. I think if we would have seen that same pressure in December, we wouldn’t have been able to break it as easily.”
Throughout the first quarter, the Fairfield defense was a feisty one. Before the Panthers could get past half court they were met with one or more Trojan defenders and more often then not the Panthers would end up turning the ball over.
Rushed passes and rushed feet led to turnover after turnover as Pekin’s missed shots and turnovers helped the Trojans take the lead.
Then, the Panthers slowed down. They planned their passes a lot more, and just focused on the little things.
It helped as the Panthers scored the first four points of the second quarter to take the lead. Eventually, the Panthers were able to go on a 14-3 scoring run throughout the second quarter to take the lead, 18-10 at halftime.
“We have been better at attacking the rim beyond just Abby and Anna,” Hartz said. “We just needed to finish around the rim a little bit better, and that will come. What I liked, especially in the second quarter, was everyone was putting an effort into attacking, it wasn’t just Abby and Anna.”
With the attacks coming from all around the floor, the Panthers were able to maintain more of their lead in the second half. Neither team set the nets on fire with their scoring ability as Pekin scored just nine points in the second half. Fairfield scored 10 total points (eight in the final quarter), but Pekin was able to keep the offense up just enough for the victory.
“Sometimes you have to win ugly,” Hartz said. “Any time you can walk out of a road gym with a win, you’re happy. I also told the girls we know we are better than what we showed tonight. The girls understand that if we can win even on a bad night, that is huge for us.”
Abby Guise led the Panthers with 17 points and 11 rebounds in the win on Thursday.   Carlie Gambell added five points. Anna Hadley finished with three points and Maddy Petrehn added another two points.
Last Tuesday night, the Panthers were able to win over WACO as they had consistent scoring in a 58-40 victory.
The Panthers started off the game well, outscoring the Warriors 24-11 in the first half. Although the Warriors did score more in the second half, a 21-point fourth quarter allowed the Panthers to seal off the game with a win.
Abby Guise scored 23 points and had 10 rebounds in the game. Anna Hadley added 13 points with nine rebounds. Carlie Gambell had eight points and six rebounds. Both Ezra Parsons and Maddy Petrehn added seven points each.
The Panthers improve to 8-5 overall and will have games against Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont, Louisa-Muscatine and Lone Tree this week.
