Twice bitten

Pine Prairie unable to take down Iota in district play
Image

PINE PRAIRIE -- Coming into Friday night’s games against Iota, the Pine Prairie Panthers and Lady Panthers were looking to gain any traction they could muster in the District 5-3A race.
The Lady Panthers entered the night 2-5 in league play, but had picked up two wins in their last four contests. Unfortunately, Pine Prairie ran into one of the top rated teams in the state and could not stay within striking distance, falling to the No. 5 ranked Iota Lady Bulldogs 49-24. With the loss, the Lady Panthers drop to 6-14 on the year.
The Panthers took to the floor against the Bulldogs hoping to collect their third district win of the season after going 2-3 in the first five games. But, it was not to be, as a last second shot from Pine Prairie bounced off the rim, giving Iota a 46-45 win. The Panthers are now 11-8 overall.
Both Pine Prairie teams will travel to Crowley on Tuesday.
Here is a re-cap of both games.

Iota (G) vs.
Pine Prairie
The Lady Panthers opened the first five minutes of the game ready to take on the challenge that faced them. After giving up the first two buckets of the game, Pine Prairie’s Asia George hit a basket of her own to make the score 4-2.
The Lady Bulldogs knocked down the next four points, but Kaitlin Robinson was able to keep the Lady Panthers in the game by connecting on ensuing jump shots. A four point run at the end of the quarter gave Iota a 15-6 lead as the buzzer sounded to end the period.
Pine Prairie kept within reach to start the second quarter by ramping up the defensive effort and causing some missed attempts by the Lady Bulldogs. Neither teams was able to gain much advantage or score a whole lot, as Iota led 19-11 with 2:28 to go in the half.
From that point on, however, the Lady Bulldogs turned up the defense themselves and was able to get some easy transition baskets toward the end of the half. In the final 2:17 of the period, Iota went on an 8-2 run to take control of the game.
Turnovers and a stiff defensive effort from the Lady Bulldogs broke the game open even wider in the third quarter. Iota finished the period with a 17-5 advantage and never looked back from that point on.
George finished the night with 15 points to lead the scoring for the Lady Panthers.

Iota (B) vs.
Pine Prairie
In the nightcap, Pine Prairie took the opening tip and charged ahead to an 8-4 lead in the first 2:40, aided by two three-point buckets from Isaiah Payne and BJ Ardoin. Never-the-less, Iota did not flinch, overtaking the Panthers by going on an 8-0 run over the next 2:30.
Payne was able to knock down a shot to stop the bleeding, but the Bulldogs finished the quarter with five straight points to take a 17-10 lead as the period came to a close.
The second quarter was a battle of wills between the two clubs. Every time one team looked like they were about to explode offensively, the other team would answer with a flurry.
By the time the teams headed into the locker room, the Iota advantage had changed by only two points, with the Bulldogs owning a 25-20 lead.
The Panthers used the half to make some minor adjustments to their offensive philosophy. As the third quarter opened, it was clear that Pine Prairie was intent on taking it right at Iota instead of trying to knock down long distance shots.
That, and a renewed life on the defensive end, allowed the Panthers to slowly crawl back into the game. When the period ended, Pine Prairie found themselves down by only one point, 34-33.
With only eight minutes left in the game, both teams knew that every point would count. The combatants exchanged free throws to start the period. However, the Panthers were able to gain some momentum and retake the lead 39-38 on a Payne basket with 4:27 to go in the contest.
Iota hit both ends of a one-and-one with two minutes left to give them a 40-39 lead. The two teams relinquished the lead a couple times down the stretch.
With 30 seconds to go and the Bulldogs leading 44-43, Payne hit on a mid-range shot to give Pine Prairie the slim one point advantage. But, Iota still had on last bullet in the gun, hitting on two free-throw attempts with only 12 seconds on the clock.
The Panthers owned the last possession and had two good looks at the basket, but both shots did not find the bottom of the net, giving the Bulldogs the big district win.
Payne led the way for Pine Prairie with 15 points, while JJ Sims collected 14 points in the loss.