Sports

Pumpkin Center teams wins over ELMS

TERRANCE THOMAS, LTN Staff Writer

Jan. 18, 2002 - DENVER — The Pumpkin Center boys and girls basketball teams both beat their arch rival, Each Lincoln Middle Thursday.

Both games were hard fought.

In the boys game, Lance Friday hit the game-winning basket with 29 seconds left then he secured a missed shot by East.

With four ticks left, his teammate Clay Kiser nailed both of his free throws to seal up the victory for the Panthers, 38-34.

“I thought we played a good game,” said Pumpkin Center’s Parker French who had seven points. “It always goes close down to the wire with East. I thought East played a good game, too.”

The game went back and forth. PCMS took the lead and at the 1:23 mark in the third quarter when Alex Loftin fired in one of his three 3-pointers on the night.

The shot made it 27-25.

PCMS went up by five early in the fourth quarter but ELMS chipped away at the lead.

The Falcons tied the lead with 57 seconds left. Kenny Bethea drove inside, scored and was fouled on the play. He hit the free throw and it was 34 all.

On PCMS’s next possession, Friday got the ball in the middle of the lane and threw it in.

Bethea’s 3-point try rattled out of the rim and Friday came up with the loose ball.

After the free throws, it was over.

“It’s really big for us to beat them,” said Jeremy Smith. “That’s our biggest rival. It took speed and defense.”

Loftin and Friday each scored 11. Demory Williams had four, Mitchell Lynch added three while Smith and Brandon Marlowe each had one.

Coming close was not satisfactory for the Falcons.

“It was a tough loss, “said Grayson Schram. “We should have beaten them. We weren’t getting rebounds or blocking out like we were supposed to.”

“We played good until the end,” said Bethea. “We didn’t execute. They have some good shooters. We didn’t put any hands in their faces.”

Bethea led the Falcons with 19 points. The other scorers were Schram (five), Kyle Smith (four), Nick bell (four), Ryan Sykes (two).

Girls: PCMS 34-25

The Lady Falcons and the Lady Panthers didn’t score a single point in the first quarter.

After that, there was no trouble at all.

PCMS’s Brittany Mabe scored the first basket right away in the second quarter.

After that, the PCMS coach told his team “we’re shooting four percent. If we can just take a hundred shots we’ll be OK.”

The rest of the way both teams had no problems scoring.

ELMS tied the game twice in the quarter.

But the Lady Panthers pulled away late in the quarter. They scored six straight points including Brittany Reel’s 3-pointer quarter to make it 14-6.

PCMS girls eventually went up by 11 points and were never really challenged the rest of the way.

“It’s our first win of the season,” said Lady Kassi Henry. “It took a lot of teamwork. We hustled down the court and tried our hardest.”

“It really feels good to win,” said PCMS’s Caroline Farris. “It was well-deserved. We just weren’t running our plays right. But (today) it all came together.”

Jamie Manley and Brittany Reel each dropped in six for PCMS. Brittany Mabe and Kristen Lovelace had four apiece. Henry, Farris and Donia McDonald all scored a basket.

Sarah Webb led the ELMS attack with seven points. Lindsey Hunter and Jessica Glenn both pitched in with five. Whitney McCorkle (three points), Krista Moore (two) and Krista Abernathy (two) all contributed for the Lady Falcons.

“We weren’t aggressive enough,” said Webb. “We didn’t put enough effort into it. Our shots didn’t go in.”

“It’s tough to lose to them,” said Moore. “They are the No. 1 team we want to beat. I know the whole team. We all are friends. We’ll get them the next time. Then we will have bragging rights.”

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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