The Green River Lady Pirates took down the Pinnacle Lady Panthers 55-38 in a Region 19 rivalry game Friday night.
From the beginning, Green River were too much for Pinnacle forcing turnover after turnover in the first quarter.
The Lady Panthers only scored 2 points in the first quarter, the lone points coming from senior Alexus Salazar.
In the second quarter being down 11 points, Pinnacle couldn’t convert at the free throw to try and get back into the game. They went one for nine at the free throw line in the second quarter.
Green River forced 24 turnovers in the first half and built a 25-11 halftime lead.
“24 turnovers is unusual for us and really that is because we dribbled more than we passed,” said Panthers’ Head Coach Mark Stuckenschneider.
After halftime, the Lady Panthers were able to bounce back and go on a 6-2 run to start the second half.
Salazar and sophomore forward Stephanie Sasser combined to score 11 of the Panthers’ 16 third quarter points to keep Green River from building a bigger lead.
The Panthers were able to keep the turnovers low and under 10 in the second half to help keep them somewhat in the game.
“What helped us with fewer turnovers was to do what we talked about at halftime, anticipating what you are going to do if the ball comes to you rather than deciding that after the ball comes to you,” said Stuckenschneider.
Junior guard Zoey Kocks said that her team played more unified as well after halftime, which helped make the second half more competitive and closer for Pinnacle.
“I think we worked more as a team and we didn’t play as one player, we played as a team,” said Kocks.
The game got physical in the fourth quarter with several fouls being charged in the fourth quarter.
Senior Nikki Borba scored seven points in the fourth quarter with four of those points being free throws.
Ultimately the Lady Pirates would continue to make shots and interrupt the Pinnacle offense to go onto win the game by 17.
Despite losing to their rival, Stuckenschneider was proud of the effort and energy his team displayed.
“I think they played really strong today. We had a lot of emotions playing Green River because its our biggest rivalry, so part of that I would like to reel in a little bit with my girls but overall I really liked the energy they played with tonight,” said Stuckenschneider.
Salazar finished the game as the team’s lead scorer with 18 points and played well for the Panthers in moments when they really needed her offensively.
“She is one of our highest scorers and she always keeps the team up,” said Kocks.
Borba was the team’s second leading scorer with nine points while helping keeping the team going as the point guard for the Panthers.
“The nicest thing about Nikki is that she is quite selfless and she has really good court vision. She will see what is on the court and make sure it gets to best shot potential and takes care of the other four players,” said Stuckenschneider.
The loss on Friday puts the Lady Panthers at 7-7 overall and 0-2 in Region 19 play.
On Tuesday night, they will host American Leadership Academy in a non-region game at 7 p.m.
Stuckenschneider and the Lady Panthers will look to snap a two-game losing streak while playing a team two classifications higher than them.
Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. inside the Pinnacle Gymnasium.
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