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Prep Confidential

PBL looking good

Posted by: Marcus Jackson

Friday, December 19, 2008 9:56 PM

I said this last week and I'll say it again — Olympia is really good. There's a reason the Spartans were ranked in the top five of the Associated Press' preseason poll and it has a lot to do with their balance.

They have three guys who can go for double figures every night and have strength and size at the guard position.

That being said, for Paxton-Buckley-Loda to drop a 51-50 contest to Olympia on Friday at the St. Joseph-Ogden Leader Classic proves the Panthers are as good as their 7-0 record entering the game indicated.

In fact, the Panthers led with less than a minute to go before a turnover gave the Spartans the lead on the same play leading scorer Kendall Cox fouled out.

Cox scored 24 for PBL on Friday and his jumper wasn't falling. He scored 16 from the free throw line and got past his defender at will all night. If he heats up from the outside, it could be a pretty special season for Scot Vogel's crew.

Dylan Overstreet was impressive off the bench, scoring 10 points and handling the ball. He's just a sophomore, so expect him to continue to improve as the season progresses.

And if Cox was on the floor for the Panthers' last possession, who knows what would have happened.

I wrote in Saturday's paper that PBL is still looking for its signature win and the Panthers will have plenty of opportunities with games against upstart St. Thomas More, Momence and Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley yet to come.

mjackson@news-gazette.com