Peebles joins 1,000-point club; Pana splits games

The Pana Panthers boys basketball team split a pair of weekend road games, but the highlight of the weekend was senior Devon Peebles of the Panthers who scored his 1,000th point of his high school career.

Pana tangled with North Mac at Girard on Friday night and emerged with a 55-50 win. Saturday, at Rochester, the host Rockets prevailed, 64-48.

Peebles poured in 30 points in Friday’s victory in which he crossed the 1,000-point threshold. He rang up four treys and was 8-of-18 from the free throw line. Max Lynch added 7 points with Ace Armstrong getting 6. Hayden Blackwell and Brant Bowker each scored 3 points and Brayden Carlson, Mat McFarland and Parker Ruot rounded out the scoring with 2 points apiece.

The Panthers were down 16-12 after the first quarter and cut the lead to 1, 27-26 at the half. In the second half, Peebles scored 16 of his 30 points as the Panthers held a 29-23 scoring advantage.

In Saturday’s contest, the Panthers had no answer for Rochester’s Henry Buecker and Darris Christmon who scored 22 and 19 points, respectively, as Rochester posted the win.

Max Lynch and Ace Armstrong each scored 19 points to lead Pana. Devon Peebles added 7 and Clayton Worker put in 2 with Brant Bowker getting a free throw to round out the scoring.

It was a 10-6 game, Rochester, at the end of the first quarter before the Rockets fired the engines and outscored the Panthers 28-8 in the second stanza for a 35-18 lead. It was 52-33, Rochester, going into the fourth quarter.

Pana is now 12-11 this season and have a 3-1 mark in the South Central Conference and host Windsor/Stewardson-Strasburg on Tuesday night in the Pana High School gym.