Panthers survive overtime thriller against Cardinal

PACKWOOD - Everything seemed to be stacking up against them. 

Without their most dominant player on the court, a ball that didn’t seem to want to go into the basket, and playing with everything at stake, the Lady Panthers were able to overcome it all. 

Saturday, the Lady Panthers opened up the postseason with an almost too thrilling 43-41 overtime win over Cardinal. 

“The offense that we had been using we decided to change and go to the weave offense," said Davis Eidahl, the head girls basketball coach for Pekin. “The more we played it the better we got. Yeah, we missed some shots that we should have made, but we did what we had to do to win the game. That’s the one thing now just doing what we need to do to win.”

There were more than a few things that the Lady Panthers had to check off of their to-do list in order to secure a first-round victory. 

First on that list was trying to overcome a dreadful first half  in which the Lady Panthers only scored 12 points. 

Cardinal, who came into the game with a record of 0-22, was playing with nothing to lose. The Comets weren’t expected to win the game. 

Cardinal drained three pointers throughout the first quarter and led 15-7 after the first eight minutes. 

Foul trouble and turnovers hurt the Lady Panthers in the second quarter as Pekin only scored five points. Cardinal matched the five points to lead 20-12 at the break. 

Much of the slow offense for Pekin came because one of their leading scorers, Anna Hadley, was in foul trouble most of the first half. With Hadley back on the court in the third quarter the Lady Panthers were able to get in a good offensive groove. 

The new offense they had installed, the weave, kept Cardinal guessing on where the ball was going to go before Pekin dumped the ball to Hadley who made the easy shot. 

The Lady Panthers used the weave, and their quick, pressure defense, to hold Cardinal to just  four points in the third quarter. 

With a 25-24 lead going into the fourth quarter it seemed as if the Lady Panthers were right on track to end the game. 

Then, Hadley fouled out early in the fourth. 

With that the game was quickly tied at 27. Both teams traded the lead for most of the first part of the final frame. Pekin would lead by four or five, then Cardinal roared back and took a modest lead. 

The lead teeter-toted from one team to the other. 

Late in the fourth the Lady Panthers held the lead, but a missed shot was rebounded by Cardinal. The Comets set up their offense and eventually threw the ball out to the three point arch where Summer LaRue hit the shot to tie the game at 39. 

The Lady Panthers seemed to have a chance at the last shot, but a quick turnover gave the ball back to Cardinal. 

The Comets dribbled deep into scoring position, but then the Pekin defense swarmed. A panicked Comet dribbler double-dribbled the ball and turned the ball over to Pekin. 

The Lady Panthers tried to set up the last shot, but the Cardinal defense kept that from happening and the game went into overtime. 

To start the extra period the Lady Panthers scored the first four points within the first minute. Neither team scored in the second minute.

A late score by Cardinal put them within one possession, 43-41, but neither team would make a shot for the final minute of the extra period and the Lady Panthers were able to win the game. 

“We are a team that seems to come out and play really good in either the first half or the second,” Eidahl said. “Tonight we happened to play well in the second half.”

The regional first round win snapped a six game skid for the Lady Panthers.

“The intensity of the girls in the fourth quarter really helped us,” Eidahl said. “We did what we needed to do there.”

The win moves Pekin on to play No. 1 ranked and undefeated Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont in a regional quarterfinal game.

Renae Eubanks led Pekin with 11 points on Saturday. Abby Guise and Anna Hadley both scored 10 points in the win.  

Paislee Coleman added six points. Another five points came from Ezra Parsons. Maddy Petrehn scored one point.