Sweet Home beats Lancaster, Rankin hits 1,000 point plateau
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

Terrell Rankin shouldn't have dressed at Lancaster on Thursday but Sweet Home coach Paul Schintzius is glad he did.

The Sweet Home senior fought through the flu to score a team-high 18 points in the Panthers' 68-58 road win. The 18 points gives Rankin 1,015 career points.

"It really is a nice accomplishment for him," said Schintzius. "An even more positive side of it is that he's done it in two and a half years. He's getting better too. He's starting to get his confidence back fully. Now he's going to the basket and shooting. He's not as timid."

"It was a real testament to his internal strength that he was even able to play," Schnintzius added. "Any other kid in our program probably would have said 'coach I can't play' and would have stayed home… He was white as a ghost. I wish we didn't have to play him as much as we did but when you're the lead weapon and your team relies on you so heavily, he didn't want to disappoint the guys."

Rankin scored 14 first half points as the Panthers jumped out to a 20-8 first quarter lead and 41-23 halftime advantage. He added four points in the fourth quarter.

Glenroy Carr and Eric Schnirel added 14 and eight points, respectively. Schintzius liked the offensive play of Marcus Johnson (five points) and Jamel Werts (four points) and Allen Douglas' rebounding.

It was the second straight game Sweet Home was without Ali Ramadan, who was out because of academic reasons.

Sweet Home (8-3, 5-1) continues its five-game road swing throughout January as they travel to Clarence at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Sweet Home won, 66-50, on Dec. 7. The Panthers played at Frontier on Tuesday but results were unavailable before The Bee went to press. The following Thursday, Sweet Home travels to Jamestown.

"Those three games will really define whether we will win the league, tie or get swept away," said Schintzius.

e-mail: pnagy@beenews.com