The Pinnacle Canyon Academy high school girls’ basketball team suffered a 29-26 loss to American Leadership Academy on Tuesday, after bringing the game within a three-point margin in the final seconds.
The Panthers got off to a slow start in the game, only scoring seven points in the first period, compared to ALA’s 13.
After going into halftime trailing by six points, the Panthers came out of halftime with more energy that they had in the first half, and held ALA to only three points in the third period. However, they only scored four themselves and went into the final period of the game trailing 25-20.
Pinnacle was able to again hold ALA to a low score in the fourth period, with ALA only scoring four points. Pinnacle had a chance to overcome ALA in the final seconds of the game, but failed in making the final shot and the game ended with the Panthers losing 29-26.
While the game will still be tallied in the loss column, Kay said that this was a much better performance from her team compared to its first game, which was a 34-15 loss to Manila.
“Compared to our first game we did awesome,” said head coach Heidi Kay. “I thought the girls did well tonight (Tuesday). I thought they played ball. We need to take care of passing a little bit more, but overall it was a great game.”
Not only does the team have a few aspects of the game to work on, but it is also dealing with something it can’t change: its height. The Panthers are a relatively small team, which means the way they play will need to be geared a bit differently than normal.
“We’re a small team, so we’ve got to be able to get up and down the court quickly and take care of the ball basically, so it’s all about ball handling for me right now” said Kay.
Pinnacle will play its next game at home against Altamont on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
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