Pittsburg girls basketball overcame a first quarter deficit to earn a dominant 74-29 victory over Paden Tuesday.
The Lady Pirates (Class-B2 No. 14, 13-9) jumped out to an early 5-0 lead which the Lady Panthers (Class-B2 No. 2, 19-3) spent the rest of the period working to overcome. With 1:34 remaining in the first and trailing 11-10, Paige Barron went to the charity stripe and split a pair of free throws to tie the game 11-11.
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Then, 12 seconds later, Taibree Melton hit a layup to give Pittsburg its first lead of the game at 13-11, which the team took into the quarter break. The Lady Pirates put the Lady Panthers in the bonus in the quarter and Pittsburg shot 5-of-8 on free throws.
Paden came out of the gate pressing Pittsburg, something the team didn’t think would happen, Coach Jim Jenson said.
“I wasn’t expecting a press right from the beginning,” Jenson said. “We talked about it, we’d gone over it actually today but they’re athletic and number 10 can play for anybody. So it kind of jarred us, hit us in the mouth a little bit. We hadn’t had that happen in a while.”
The Lady Panthers got back to work in the second with two layups from Melton and Tabrey Powell within the first minute to go up 17-11. Pittsburg outscored Paden 17-8 in the period and held a 30-19 lead at halftime.
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The third quarter saw the Lady Panthers lock in on offense and lock down on defense.
Pittsburg began the quarter on a 15-0 run behind four 3-point makes, two from Barron, one from Gwen Robinson and one from Powell. The Lady Panthers ran away with the quarter, scoring 22 points to take a 52-25 lead going into the final frame.
Pittsburg kept its foot on the gas pedal in the fourth quarter, outscoring Paden 22-4 to take the 74-29 win.
Barron led the game in scoring with 20 points on three makes from beyond the arc and going 9-for-12 from the charity stripe. Taylynn Conder scored 19 points and Melton had 13.
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Now, with just two games remaining on the schedule before the playoffs begin, the Lady Panthers are showing they’re ready for the postseason run. Jenson said not letting the early deficit get to them was an indicator that his team is ready for challenges.
“I think we’re getting close to playoff ready,” Jenson said. “We’ve been building on that and in December I wasn’t sure we’d get to this point. I knew we had potential and we’ve still got some things to clean up but I’m proud of them. I’m proud of the no panic.”
Pittsburg is set to host Tupelo (6-15) in the district round.
The win marked a milestone for Jenson: it was his 600th win in high school girls basketball. Jenson credited his players for the achievement.
“It tells me two things: it tells me I’ve had really good kids and I’m really getting old,” Jenson said.
Pittsburg plays its next game 6 p.m. Friday at home against Soper.
