The Pender Boys lost 75-36 at home to Oakland-Craig Friday night, and 40-39 at home to Allen Monday night.
The Knights spurted out to a 24-9 lead on the Pendragons after one. Oakland-Craig outscored Pender 19-7 in the second quarter to go up 43-16 at halftime.
The Knights won the third quarter 18-13 to make it a 61-29 game at the end of three.
Oakland-Craig doubled up the Pendragons 14-7 in the fourth quarter.
Dylan Roth paced Pender with 16 points while Tyler Nelson had 12.
Allen led 10-5 after one.
Pender battled back in the second quarter, outscoring the Eagles 9-4 to tie the game at 14 at halftime.
The Pendragons won the third quarter 10-9 to go up 24-23 after three.
The Eagles won the fourth quarter 17-15.
Pender (1-3) was led by Roth, who had a game-high 16 points. James Bensen added 12.
Assistant Coach Clay Haymart.
"We had our opportunities, and it hurts. But we got to come out and work the rest of the week. Clarkson/Leigh is going to be big. They're football players down there so we got to come ready to go against them. North Bend Central and Stanton have always given us trouble since I've been in Pender so we got our work cut out for us the rest of the week."
Haymart's team hit only 3 of 15 free throws.
"That's been one of strengths up until this game. I think we came in to the day shooting 60 percent, something around there. So uncharacteristic of us, but hats off to Allen, they played well enough to win. They took advantage of our mistakes."
The Pendragons (1-3) take on Clarkson/Leigh (0-5) on the road Thursday night.
The Patriots lost 74-33 at home to BRLD on Saturday.
This is an interesting game because last year the team's were in opposite positions.
Pender was winless at home against a one win Clarkson/Leigh team last year and won so if things go like that again then the Patriots may win.
The loss to the Eagles was tough and had to really hurt there's no doubt about it.
The Pendragons have to simply forget about it and move on though. Nothing can be done about it now.
Pender has to come ready to play Thursday night because you can bet the Patriots will.
This should be an interesting game. I think the Pendragons can win, but it's going to be tough.
The road doesn't get any easier for Pender either with North Bend Central and Stanton coming up on Friday and Saturday.
The Pendragons really need this game to give themselves a shot against the Tigers and Mustangs, in my opinion.
I thought Pender would win Monday's game, but I was wrong. I think Clarkson/Leigh may win Thursday, but I could be wrong about that too.
The point I'm trying to make is it doesn't matter what is said or written about these two teams. All that matters is what the players and coaches think when it comes to the team's chances of winning Thursday night.
We will see what happens, but I would say the Patriots have a fairly decent shot to knock off the Pendragons, but Pender can also win too so it should be a pretty good game either way.
We will find out if the Pendragons can bounce back from Monday night's loss.
The Pender Girls beat Oakland-Craig 49-41 at home Friday night before downing Allen 65-22 at home Monday night.
Pender jumped out to a 17-4 lead on the Knights at the end of one. The Pendragons doubled up the Knights 16-8 in the second quarter to take a 33-12 lead into the locker room.
Oakland-Craig made a game of it in the third quarter, outscoring Pender 17-9 to make it a 42-29 game at the end of three.
The Knights won the fourth quarter 12-7.
The Pendragons (3-0) were led by Kamryn Anderson, who registered a game-high 28 points. Hallie Ballinger added 7 points and 14 rebounds. Cecilee Jacobsen totaled 15 rebounds.
Head Coach Larry Ballinger's girls hit only 10 of 34 free throws despite the win.
"It really is an embarrassing thing. And that's been a common theme these three games. Obviously we're doing something wrong in practice, and we got to do something better. Because this isn't working. And you get in tight games like this we could of won it I think handily if we could of just hit some shots, there wouldn't of been so much pressure on us."
Ballinger comments on Anderson's 28 points.
"Yeah when Kam is feeling good, and she was obviously feeling it the first half where she's dribble penetrating, hit some shots from the outside. And that's a good thing we had her going cause nobody else could really hit anything."
Pender jumped out to a 19-0 lead in the first quarter against the Eagles, and led 21-2 at the end of one.
The Pendragons won the second quarter 13-7 to take a 34-9 lead into the locker room.
Pender also won the third quarter 10-8 to extend their lead to 44-17 at the end of three.
The Pendragons outscored Allen 21-5 in the fourth quarter.
Jacobsen poured in a game-high 22 points and had 9 points for Pender (4-0) while Anderson added 11. Ballinger and Rylee Lehmkuhl notched 8 apiece. Ballinger registered 12 rebounds.
Larry Ballinger made it clear he didn't like his team's play in the third.
"Yeah I thought we just come out complacent, and just no effort. And defensively it was just an ugly quarter. And I just thought we just nonchalanted through things. And I don't care who you're playing everybody deserves your respect and you got to come out and play tough."
Ballinger was upset with his team's efforts in the third period and let it be known.
"You can't do this against good teams. And that's why I got kind of upset with them. And we got to be better than that otherwise we're not going to go very far."
The Pendragons square off with Clarkson/Leigh (2-3) on the road Thursday night.
The Patriots are much improved having lost 52-37 to BRLD at home Friday night.
I think this could be a close game if Pender isn't on top of their game.
The Pendragons can't afford to have lapses in their play because it is going to catch up to them at some point.
Pender has to play hard at all times, and respect every opponent.
Championship teams don't take other teams lightly, and if the Pendragons want to do well in the postseason and make state and do something in Lincoln, they have to play at a high level at all times.
Between missing a ton of free throws against Oakland-Craig and not playing a good third quarter against Allen, there's plenty for Ballinger and his team to work on.
With this said, it's nowhere near the time to panic and be overly concerned if you are the Pendragons.
Pender is still undefeated and has gone on to win games big with the exception of the Oakland-Craig game.
The Pendragons will be fine, they just need to start playing four complete quarters of basketball.
Reason being sooner or later this playing two or three good quarters of basketball is going to catch up to them.
So there's a reason to be a little concerned if you are Pender, but these struggles aren't something to overreact to.
We'll find out what the Pendragons are made of the rest of this week. Pender has North Bend Central and Stanton Friday and Saturday, and neither of those teams figure to make life easy for the Pendragons.
We'll find out just how for real Pender is this weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment