Gardner – Princeton and PikeView looked like a pair of teams that hadn’t played or practiced much over the last week.
Look no further than the fact the two teams combined to shoot 10 of 63 from the field in the first half with neither hitting above a 22 percent clip. But a spark led to a fire in the final frame for the visiting Tigers.
Princeton’s Abbey Honaker scored all of her game-high 11 points in the fourth quarter, helping the visitors rally for a 45-41 victory over county and regional rival PikeView Monday night in Gardner.
For much of the first half the Tiger offense looked hopeless, hitting on just 11 percent of its shots (4 for 36) and going scoreless for the first 7:40 of the second quarter. But Honaker, who battled foul trouble, made the difference in a game where offense was at a premium.
“She got herself in foul trouble and we had to sit for her set of periods but that’s says a lot about the kid,” Princeton head coach Matt Smith said. “She can sit when things are not quite going her way early, but when her moment came, she stepped up and did what she needed to do. That was the message in the locker room. 
It was it was team tonight. Every single person on the floor did their everything when it wasn’t your time, you were up cheering for the person whose time it was. And listen, Abbey’s only a sophomore and she’s just gonna keep rolling and getting better. So very, very proud of her and very happy for her that she had that big fourth quarter.”
PikeView, which led 9-8 after a quarter, never could take advantage of the slow start from the visitors. While the Tigers struggled to find the bottom of the net in the second quarter, PikeView’s offense fared little better. Despite holding the Tigers to two points in the second frame, the hosts took just a 17-10 advantage into the break.
“That’s a good word – struggle. We struggled the whole night offensively,” PikeView head coach Tony Mallamaci said. “We shot 29 percent from the field or somewhere right around in there. 
We didn’t go after loose balls. We didn’t box out. They wanted it more than we did. 
They out-executed us. (Smith) did a great job of coaching. Evidently I didn’t have them prepared, but I can’t go out there and make layups for them. I can’t go out there and and box out for them. I can’t go out there and rebound for them. 
It’s very frustrating, because it’s a great group of kids, great kids. Good ball players, but they sure didn’t show it tonight. Just wasn’t well-played basketball. Very frustrating.”
Despite a lackluster first half, the Tigers rebounded early in the second. A 3 from Natalie Rose jumpstarted an 8-1 run to open the third quarter, one that featured layups from Emma Sands and Asia Collins. A 3 from Kalee Wright later in the frame boosted Princeton to a 23-22 advantage, one that held until a Haley Justice layup.
The Panthers pushed their lead back to three late in the frame courtesy of a pair of Riley Meadows layups but Collins dropped in another layup before the buzzer to pull the Tigers back within a point.
A pair of Jocelyn Hall free throws in the fourth quarter pushed the advantage back to three before Honaker caught fire. A three-point play from the sophomore knotted the game before she hit on a layup that shifted the advantage Princeton’s way where it stayed for the remainder of the evening.
Leading 39-36, Honaker nailed five of her six free throw attempts down the stretch to salt the game. The Panthers never came within a possession the rest of the way.
“We started playing bad defense,” Mallamaci said. “From a strategy standpoint nothing changed, we just quit giving intense effort. It looked like, to me, we were just going through the motions and I wish I had an answer that. 
I don’t really have the answer.”
The rebounding totals proved particularly frustrating for PikeView.
The Panthers lost the battle of the boards 50-39 with Princeton point guard Asia Collins, the smallest player on the court, corralling a team-high 13 including five on the offensive glass.
“I had had a middle school coach contact me the other night and said, ‘Do you have any drills for rebounding?'” Smith said. 
I said, ‘Yes, but it doesn’t matter because defense and rebounding comes down to effort and it has to come from within.’ Asia Collins shouldn’t rebound over anybody, but she wants it and then that’s contagious and Carly Hurt is battling for rebounds. for 13 rebounds. 
It’s effort. You can coach it up and do whatever, you can do all the drills you want to. When it comes down to it, rebounding is about who wants it and our girls stepped up. We wanted to control the boards and that was the difference in the game.
”
P: 8 2 18 15 – 45
PV: 9 8 12 12 – 41
Princeton
Kalee Wright 7, Abbey Honaker 11, Emma Sands 2, Natalie Rose 6, Asia Collins 6, Carly Hurt 6, Lakyn Burner 7
PikeView
Riley Meadows 9, Haley Justice 7, Jocelyn Hall 9, Karis Trump 7, Jaelynn Shrewsbury 6, Tylar Burks 2, Sedona Waldron 1
