ELSAH, IL - The Principia Men's Basketball matched up against the Webster Gorloks on Saturday for the Panthers' Senior Day. With both teams in the middle of the conference standings and the season winding down, every game is important to win. The Panthers are coming off of a couple of tough losses and really need to catch some momentum heading into the post season play.
In the first half, the Panthers came out with great energy on the defensive end and forced Webster into some tough shots. On the offensive end,
AJ Byrd was able to get to the paint and create some shots for himself, and
Shemarri Miles also made some drives inside and was dropping dimes to his teammates. The Panthers were making some big shots to help them maintain their lead, but the Panthers struggled to secure rebounds on the defensive side, and the Gorloks kept scoring off offensive rebounds. To close out the half,
Kevin Wingert drove strong to the bucket to put the Panthers up 13 points, before Webster scored with a few seconds left as the half end with Principia on top 40-29.
Unfortunately, the second half was another story for the Panthers. The team came out pretty flat and had a hard time getting going on both ends of the court. After a few Panthers offesnive possessions came up empty, the Gorloks started to get going ass they knocked down tough mid range shots and made 62% of their field goals in the second half. Webster slowly overcame the first half deficit, and once they took over the lead, the Panthers could never get it back. Closing out the game strong, Webster took the game 83-73 as they handed the Panthers their third loss in a row, dropping their conference record 5-6.
Before the game, the Panthers honored their lone senior,
Daniel Hoffman, who came back this season for his fifth year (due to the covid canceled season) to play his final year of eligibility. Coach
Todd Zimmerman had this to say about Hoffman: "Daniel has been the ultimate teammate over his five years in our program. We have been blessed to have a leader of his caliber and we are so grateful for all his contributions to the program. We will miss him dearly, but also know that he will do incredible things once leaving Principia!"
Good To Know: AJ Byrd finished the game with another 20+ point performance, scoring 24 points and grabbing 8 rebounds.
Clark Davidson put up 14 points and 5 rebounds along with
Kevin Wingert's 8 points and 5 boards.
Next Up: The Panthers play Eureka Red Devils in their final home game of the season on Monday at 7:30 pm! Come support the guys for the final time in Hay Field House this semester! If you can't make it, check out the streaming link on the Men's Basketball page.
