Heads held high after tough weekend

The Saratoga Lady Panthers varsity basketball team (1-2, 3-4) showed a lot of heart last week, even with two conference losses.

The girls hosted the Burns Lady Broncs (2-0, 7-7) on Friday and even with a stellar second half, the Lady Panthers came up short in a 30-38 loss. Saratoga was ahead by one point at the end of the first quarter but couldn't overcome a 10-point run by the Lady Broncs in the second quarter. Showing improvement in their defense and rebounding the Lady Panther out-scored Burns 14 to 5 in the fourth quarter, but Burns managed to hang on to the lead they had established by half time.

"That second half of basketball was awesome. All of us coaches agreed that that second half was how we need to be playing the whole game," coach Kelly Horn said after the game. "At half the coaches told the team to get in there and box out and rebound." The team did just that, grabbing more rebounds and that is where Horn thinks they found success.

Haley Soles and Katie Loose had notably good games for the Lady Panthers. "We felt as coaches that Haley Soles had a really good second half of basketball. She was shooting the basketball, scoring and taking it to the hole," Horn said. Soles lead the team scoring with 9 points. Meredith Lincoln was close behind with 8 points against Burns.

Stepping up their rebounding game, Loose took down eight boards, Shaelee Hamann had six rebounds and Lincoln had a well-rounded game with five rebounds. The Lady Panthers had a total of 29 rebounds, 14 on offense and 15 on defense against Burns.

The coaches knew they were heading into a tough battle when they got on the bus to go to Pine Bluffs on Saturday. The Lady Hornets (1-0, 11-1) have a strong offense, especially their game at the post, and handed the Lady Panthers a 26-69 defeat.

Coach Horn said that the Lady Panthers prepared well and did a great job of limiting Pine Bluffs post shots, but that opened up other Lady Hornets to shoot the ball. Significantly, the Lady Panthers held the Lady Hornets leading scorer to only 8 points.

Horn said the team had success with a 2-3 zone defense with Lincoln at the top of the key and Loose in the middle. Lincoln had five steals, two blocks, three rebounds and seven points while Soles had two steals, three blocks, one rebound and five points. Loose was pulling down rebounds again with eight total, four on offense and four on defense.

"The girls never hung their heads once. They kept a positive attitude the whole time," coach Horn said. That attitude has kept the girls excited for their upcoming games against Little Snake River and a rematch against Encampment this coming weekend. Horn said she is looking forward to Little Snake River which she sees as a team with similar size and speed to the Lady Panthers. Horn said both Little Snake River and Encampment are well coached and should provide good match-ups for Saratoga.

The Lady Panthers have two away games this weekend. Tip off in Baggs is at 4:40 p.m. Saratoga heads down to the Encampment Homecoming week for a Saturday game that starts at 1:30 p.m.