Lady Panthers finish fourth; take tough conference loss

The Lady Panthers played in the Fremont Tournament over the Christmas break and finished with one win and three losses. The Lady Panthers had good shots at the basket, but they would not fall for Saratoga.

“We definitely didn’t play our best basketball, as we must start making things happen in 2013,” head coach Matt Love wrote in an email.

Wind River was the first game of the tournament and the Cougars topped Saratoga 31-71.

“We simply did not play well,” Love said.

The second game of the day showed the Lady Panthers playing better basketball, as the Panthers downed the Wyoming Indian JV squad 59-51.

Taylor Smith had a double double in this game and was backed by Mati Love with 13 points and Shelby McGuire with 12 of her own.

“We scored points this game and had three players in double digits” Love said. “We’ve been struggling at scoring, so that was good to see.”

Saratoga let up in the third game, and the final score showed. The Wyoming Indian Varsity team outscored the Lady Panthers 20-52.

“Scoring 20 points is not going to win any games,” Love said.

The fourth and final game for the Panthers was a match for third and fourth place against the Riverton JV team. Riverton edged out Saratoga with a 29-46 score to give the Lady Panthers fourth place.

“We have a tough conference game on Friday when Burns comes to town,” Love said. “We will continue to work to get better and try to find ways to score. We’re getting some great shots, they’re just simply not falling for us. There’s a lot of basketball left, and we have to stay positive and be patient.”

On Friday afternoon the Burns Broncos (9-2) (2-0) met the Lady Panther (5-8) (0-3) in Saratoga for another conference match-up. Saratoga came out ready to play, and the Lady Panthers turned it on early against the press from Burns.

Although there wasn’t much scoring in the first half, senior Taylor Smith started up her team’s offense. Driving the hoop and converting a flash breakaway, the senior had the Panthers holding on early as Freshman Mati Love hit a three-point basket at the end of the first for a score of 7-10. Smith racked up a double double on the night, but her effort wasn’t enough to hold off the Broncos who are ranked number five in the state.

Saratoga seemed to be clicking in the second quarter, as Shelby McGuire hit free throws and Justine Fourman rebounded everything that came her way. Smith drove again to tie the game, and Fourman backed her team to go ahead at half, 19-17.

Saratoga ran with the Broncos the entire game. The score got away from the Lady Panthers through the third quarter and the Lady Panthers couldn’t get much offense started after the half.

“The turnovers got to us in the second half,” Love said. “We had 28 turnovers in the game and we just have to stop turning the ball over.”

The Lady Broncos started hitting everything they shot, and with the Broncs going to the line quite a bit in the second half, the score quickly moved to the Lady Broncos’ favor. Saratoga owned the paint on defense until the scoring shifted, and once the Broncs had the momentum they were able to score at-will.

The Lady Panthers didn’t let up in this basketball game though the score at the final buzzer did not reflect the way Saratoga played. The Lady Broncos topped Saratoga by a score of 31-54, but with six weeks left there is a lot of basketball to be played.

“We are confident at this point,” Love said. “ Leading the number five team in the state at halftime was an accomplishment, but we will figure out how to play 36 minutes of basketball.”

Up next for the Lady Panthers are two home games. Saratoga will play Hanna- Elk Mountain- Medicine Bow on Friday at 4 p.m., and then host Lusk on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.

Lusk is a conference game, and the Lady Panthers lost the last time they faced Lusk on the road.

“We will be at full strength this time. We had a lot of players out with sickness last time we played them, so our outlook is much better this time,” Love said.