Switzerland County opened the home portion of this year’s schedule on Saturday night by hosting Jennings County, but came away with a disappointing loss, 58-42.
A big difference between Friday night’s game at Trinity Lutheran and Saturday’s game with Jennings County lay in the size of schools being played. Trinity Lutheran was a small 1A school; and Jennings County being a 4A school — the largest school classification in the state.
Even though Jennings County is a big school corporation, the Panthers didn’t shake Switzerland County, with the Pacers playing a close game the entire night.
Again coach David Todd shuffled his starting lineup, and Saturday night’s starting lineup for the Pacers was Matt Deaton, Chancey May, Ben Hickman, Travis Webster and T.J. Sefton.
The first minute of the game the ball was back and forth with several attempts at scoring but no luck on either side.
The Panthers were first to score in the game, going to the line hitting one of two of their foul shots.
Ben Hickman then scored a basket to give the Pacers the lead. Chancey May stole the ball and passed to Ben Hickman who went up for two points. Giving the Pacers the lead 4-1.
Jennings County then came back and scored a basket, and then hit two freethrows to grab the lead. The Panthers would eventually swell the advantage to 9-4 as the quarter wound down.
Travis Webster responded with less than a minute to go with a nice three-pointer to finish the quarter 9-7 with the visitors out in front.
There was no scoring in the first few minutes of the second quarter from the Pacers side. Jennings County took the opportunity and hit a foul shot and added several more points. The score was now 15-7 about two minutes into the period.
The Pacers then scored a bucket for two points, but were unable to make a run at narrowing the Jennings County lead. The scoring was back and forth in the second quarter, and the half ended with a score of 23-13.
During the third quarter scoring was much closer, with the Pacers trailing in scoring 21-19. The Panthers were first to score a bucket; but Travis Webster responded by stealing the ball and scoring two points. The Panthers had their own response with a basket for two and making one of two foul shots. Travis Webster was again the Pacer to score, as he added two more three-point shots and went to the foul line to add two more.
The Panthers scored several more baskets; but with about two minutes left in the period Ben Hickman added a bucket of his own with the score now at 42-25.
Travis Webster scored twice again with a two and another three-pointer in the last two minutes; and Zach Getz also scored near the end of quarter. Ending the quarter with a score of 44-32.
The fourth quarter started with Travis Webster stealing the ball and passing to Chancey May for two.
Switzerland County held Jennings County scoreless for the first three minutes of the quarter, then Jennings County’s Connor Ertel scored to end the drought.
With four minutes left in the fourth quarter, Travis Webster tried to steal the ball again and came down hard hitting the floor and was taken out of the game with his injury.
The Panthers then scored two from the foul line and hit another bucket giving the Panthers a lead of 53-38.
The Panthers scored a few more times before the quarter was over; and B.J. Shelton scored one last time for the Pacers — ending the game with a score of 58-42.
Switzerland County’s leading scorer — with a great game in spite of missing half of the last quarter — was Travis Webster with 21 points. Ben Hickman had six points; B.J. Shelton and Chancey May each had four points. Matt Deaton added three points and T.J. Sefton and Zach Getz each chipped in two.
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The junior varsity lost by a score of 62-27 Saturday night. Scoring for the Pacers were Michael Haas with five points; Devon Armstrong, Cliff Meyer and Jordan Pavy all had four each. Brandon Otter and Daniel Welch both scored three points each. Aaron Moore and Kyle Green each scored two points.
— Debi Sefton