Panthers survive Pirates’ second-half rally, escape with one-point victory

PALMYRA, Mo. — Even though the Palmyra girls basketball team hung on for the victory, neither Sydney Compton nor Clare Williams felt much like celebrating.

Palmyra’s 70-69 margin of victory over Hannibal fails to illustrate how the Panthers blew an 18-point lead in the second half. 

The score also fails to show Palmyra (13-10) had to withstand one charge after another from Hannibal (11-10) over the closing six minutes of a game witnessed by a turnout of about 690 on Tuesday night.

“I can’t really tell you what happened in the second half, but we had no effort on defense,” said Compton, who led all scorers with 32 points. “It was one of our worst defensive games of the season. I’m just glad we won.”

Not until Compton sank her final field goal could Palmyra finally exhale. Compton’s basket gave the Panthers a 70-66 advantage with six seconds to play. Hannibal’s Malia Stolte hoisted a long 3-pointer at the buzzer to establish the final one-point spread.

At one juncture in the third quarter, Palmyra led 50-32. Not long afterward, however, Hannibal had rallied to tie the game at 55 early in the fourth stanza. Hannibal’s comeback was fueled by the efforts of Stolte, Mariah Mayfield and Zaria Reese, who combined for 24 of Hannibal’s 26 points in one stretch.

“It was frustrating when we lost our intensity on defense and patience (on offense),” said Williams, who fouled out late in the game after scoring 18 points. “We need to be more aggressive at both ends of the floor. We have to push ourselves more.”

Palmyra coach Kelsey Stuart was still trying to make sense of it all more than 30 minutes after the game had ended.

“We did well in the first half, but then we got comfortable,” she said. “We always need to be ready to go. This was a win, but it was not pretty. This was a good reminder that we need to stay hungry.”

Hannibal, which defeated Palmyra 60-54 in late January, was led by Stolte’s 27 points. The junior point guard, who was coming off a 31-point showing in a 58-41 win over Marshall last week, went 13 of 13 at the foul line.

Mayfield (17) and Reese (12) combined for another 29 points for Hannibal.

“We’re really close to what we can be, and that’s important with the postseason right around the corner,” Hannibal coach Shawn Gaines said. “Our girls never panicked when they got way behind. Everything that could have gone wrong early in the game did go wrong, and that led to (Palmyra’s big lead). But our girls showed some toughness in coming back to tie the game. I think this kind of game will pay off down the road.”

Compton feels Palmyra is also close to where it needs to be for the district tournament, which will start next week.

“But we’re not there yet,” she said. “It’s been kind of an up and down season. Every team goes through spurts, but we’ve had more good than bad.”

Palmyra owned a 39-28 rebounding advantage. The Panthers’ trio of Williams (8), Compton (7) and Avery Wisehart (7) had the top three individual totals in the game. 

The two schools combined for 53 turnovers.