Togie buries Miners, scratched by cats

With a new offense in place, the Saratoga Panthers picked up one win during the Carbon County Classic Tournament this weekend.

The Panthers lost to Cokeville 48-61.

Saratoga held a one-point lead over Cokeville after the first quarter but Cokeville dominated the rest of the way after a second-quarter burst.

Senior Ben Gates led the Panthers with 16 points and five defensive rebounds.

“We have growing pains, but we got better, “ head coach Josh Sandlian said.

The team is getting used to understanding where to rotate and getting more comfortable with the offensive play, Sandlian added.

Saturday, the Panthers easily beat the Hanna-Elk Mountain-Medicine Bow (HEM) Miners 50-35.

The Panthers nearly shut out the Miners in the first quarter. HEM refocused in the second quarter, scoring 15 points to Saratoga’s 9.

Not about to let HEM get a win, the Panthers stepped it up, scoring 30 points in the second half.

Senior Daniel Kerbs led the Panthers in scoring with his nearly perfect 7-9 free throw shooting. Kerbs also scored two points in the field.

Junior Ryan Malone and sophomore Braxton Schwartzkopf scored one three-pointer each.

Scwartzkopf and Malone scored eight points each against Hanna. Ben Gates scored seven.

Coming off a win over the Miners, Saratoga faced Encampment.

The Panthers struggled against the bigger team.

“We’ve got to do a better job,” Sandlian said.

Boxing the bigger guys out and keeping them off the boards is what the team needs to concentrate on, especially going up against conference rivals Lusk and Burns, Sandlain added.

“They have a couple of big guys who can run the floor. We need to advance the ball ahead of the big guys,” Sandlian said.

“We’ve got to play defense down low and be able to play offense down low,” Sandlian said. “Coach (Jared) Crawford and I weren’t disappointed, we saw good things.”

“We’ll be seeing Cokeville again and Hanna and Encampment will get better.”

Sandlian said the team will prepare for conference by learning the new offense and he is depending on the seniors to lead the way.

Sandlian said the tournament gives the team a chance to see where they are at.

“We have got a few guys who haven’t played a whole lot of varsity and hopefully each week we get better.”

Saturday, the Panthers host North Park at 1 p.m.