The Pinnacle Panther basketball squads were on the road on Saturday to begin the 1A state championships. The boys earned the No. 19 seed and ended up on the road against the Wayne Badgers. The girls sat at No. 20 and were on the road to face Valley. The boys struggled early on and could never catch-up falling 54-46. The girls scored just six in the first quarter and suffered the same fate losing 69-14.

Sophomore Cole Barton led the Panthers with 12 in the contest at Wayne. Pinnacle only put up four points in the first quarter and nine in the second quarter as the Badgers ended the first half with a 23-13 lead headed into the locker room.

In the third the Panthers were able to find their offense scoring 13 in the quarter, but the Badgers still maintained a 10 point advantage going into the final quarter. In the fourth, Pinnacle put 20 points on the board but it just wasn’t enough as they fell to the Wayne Badgers and ended their season.

Seniors Anthony Shumway and Michael Schmitz both put up 10 and Austin Brown scored two in their final basketball game for the Panthers.

The Lady Panthers had a rough outing against the Valley Buffalos. The Panthers put up six in the first and two in the second and had no answer on the defensive side as Valley scored 46 points in the first half.

Half number two was more of the same as Valley dialed back a bit, but the Lady Panthers still couldn’t find an answer on offense as they scored six points in the second half.

Sophomore Madison Sasser put six points on the board while Samanth Kessler scored two and senior Kemery Stuckenschnieder scored two in her final game for Pinnacle.

Check back with Castle Country Radio for the year in review for the Pinnacle Panther basketball teams.