The Pinnacle Panther basketball team hosted the Panther Winter Classic over the weekend bringing teams in from around the region. After all, was said and done the Panthers would end the weekend 3-1 with wins over Salt Lake Academy, Dugway, and Utah Military Acdemy Camp Williams, with their only loss coming at the hands of Merit Preparatory Academy.
Starting the tournament with Salt Lake Academy, Pinnacle would come out in first and kept things close but Salt Lake Academy took a 19-16 lead at the end of the quarter. In the second quarter, they came back and tied up the score at 31-31 headed to the second half.
Coming out in the third quarter, Salt Lake Academy came out and took control, outscoring the Panthers 18-11 and taking a 49-42 lead into the fourth and final quarter. Pinnacle came out for the final eight minutes playing like they were on a mission, they held the Griffins to 13 points and scored 23 to take the 65-62 win.
Diego Contreras led the Panthers with 16, Dominick Vigil had 14 and Brody Howell and Riley Davis each scored 11 in the win.
In their first game on Friday, they squared up with the Dugway Mustangs. Pinnacle used big first and third quarters to earn the 48-34 win.
The first quarter was all about Pinnacle getting off to a fast start, and that is exactly what they did taking a 16-8 lead at the end of the first. In the second Dugway turned around and added eight to their score as the Panthers were able to score just four but still took a 20-16 lead into the locker room at halftime.
In the third, Pinnacle came back scoring 13 and giving up just five to the Mustangs. Dugway went to work in the fourth but couldn’t overcome the lead that the Panthers had built and Pinnacle would earn the 48-34 win.
Brody Howell would lead Pinnacle with 14, while Contreras added 12 and Joey Howell had 10 in the win.
In their second game of the day on Friday, the Panthers would face the Utah Military Academy Camp Williams Marauders. The contest was a tale of two halves, with Pinnacle owning the first half and building enough of a lead to hold off the Marauder’s barrage in the second and take the 49-48 win.
The Panthers came out in the in the first quarter turning on the offense scoring 19, and turning up the defense and allowing just eight to the Marauders. The second was more Pinnacle as they would add 11 to their score and only gave up five going into the locker room up 30-13 at halftime.
Utah Military Academy came out in the second half looking to over come the deficit they found themselves in and they came out firing putting up 22 in the third and defensively allowing just 11 to the Panthers, cutting the lead to 41-35. The Marauders would continue scoring in the fourth putting up another 13 in the final quarter and gave up eight to the Panthers giving them just enough to hold on taking the one-point win 49-48.
Davis led the Panthers with 15, Vigil added 10 and Brody Howell scored seven in the win.
Saturday the Panthers would take on Merit Prep, a contest that wouldn’t go as planned for Pinnacle as they were handed a 78-36 loss.
Merit had Pinnacle’s number from the beginning outscoring them in the first quarter 25-4, the second quarter was much of an improvement with Merit scoring 20 and, the Panthers were able to put 10 up on the scoreboard and would go to the locker room down 45-14.
The second half was more of the same as Merit came out in the third and posted another 23 and held Pinnacle to 11. The Panthers came out in the fourth scoring 11 but when the final buzzer sounded the Panthers fell 78-36.
The Panthers get back on the court on Saturday, when they welcome Wayne to Price.
Game time is set for 1:30 p.m..