Johnny Lackendar

Cameron Gingerich

  IMS scored a big conference road win Friday, defeating conference co-leader Pekin by the score of 65-51.  After battling to a  4-4 tie after four minutes, IMS edged away and then a Cameron Gingerich triple gave IMS an 11-7 lead which grew into a 14-7 margin by the end of the first frame.   IMS then exploded for a 16-3 run to take a 30-10 lead five minutes into the second quarter.  A 7-2 Panther spurt over the next three minutes brought Pekin to within 32-17 at the half.

 
A 16-9 IMS advantage in the third quarter gave the visitors a 48-26 lead heading into the final period.  The IMS defense continued to make things difficult for the Panthers as IMS led 58-29 with five minutes to play.  As IMS ran into foul trouble, began to make substitutions, and got a little careless, the Panthers, led by all-stater Trey Sathoff, came to life.  Pekin put together a 13-0 run to trail 58-42 with three minutes left and got it to 14 at 61-47 with one minute left.  IMS would salt it away at the line, led by Peyton Thompson’s 5-6 free throws down the stretch.  Sathoff scored 15 of his game-high 23 points in the last quarter.

 

IMS was led by Chance Miller and Thompson with 16 points each, Gingerich with 13, and Brian Hagedorn with 10 points.  Johnny Lackender finished with six points, Reggie Hostetler had four points, and Dallas Nye scored two.  Hagedorn had a team-high eight rebounds and Hostetler had six. Gingerich and Miller each had four assists and Nye had three. Lackender came up with three steals and Hagedorn had two.

Coach Dwight Gingerich said “we were fortunate to hold an explosive team down for most of the game. Pekin is capable of scoring a lot of points quickly, which they demonstrated late in the game.  We had a lot of people step up and make contributions at key times all night long.”

IMS goes to 9-2 in conference play, 10-3 overall.  Pekin drops to 9-2 and 10-2.  IMS next plays at Louisa-Muscatine Tuesday.