Panthers taste conference play

The Panther (2-4), (0-2) basketball team took two difficult losses away from this last weekends’ conference play in Lusk (9-0), (7-0) on Friday, and Pine Bluffs (4-3), (2-2) on Saturday.

Although the Panthers were confident about competing in their first game, coach Sandlian said, “We have to compete for the whole game.”

The men dropped the Lusk match 49-78 in a frustating game that the Panthers trailed for the first three quarters.

Led by Hunter Dockery, who scored 28 points on his own, Lusk had an offense that was hard to stop.

“Take away that scoring effort, and we would have done a lot better,” coach Sandlian said.

Dockery added to the damage by finishing 80 percent from the line.

“Ryan Malone was guarding Lusk’s leading scorer and, although Malone played great defense, Dockery was able to get good shots,” Sandlian said.

Malone stuck with Dockery, but the Lusk player had three pointers that fell and sometimes Malone was in the right spot and sometimes he wasn’t.

“It was a pretty tough weekend, with both games being conference play. We will know what to look for the next time we play Lusk,” Sandlian said.

The Panthers fell to Pine Bluffs, 42-65 the following night.

“It’s a battle every time we play Pine Bluffs,” coach Sandlian said.

There were some turnovers on the weekend, 17 against Lusk and 16 against Pine Bluffs, but Sandlian wasn’t too concerned with that.

“We did pretty good on turnovers both games, Sandlian said. “Unfortunately, we had 12 in the first half against Pine Bluffs.”

Saratoga also got into foul trouble early, and two or three starters fouled out by mid-way through the fourth.

“It is pretty tough to win with starters on the bench,” Sandlian said.

With key players out of the game, Sandlian had to rely on younger, less experienced players to try to put together a comeback late in the game.

“It’s hard for players with less varsity experience to be asked late in a game to try and battle back,” coach Sandlian said. “Especially in a conference game right before Christmas break. Later in the season they would be able to fill in and not miss a beat, but right now the young kids are trying to get used to the faster pace of varsity play.”

The Panthers were trying to come back from a 10-point deficit and when a few open lay-ups were missed late, the Toga team could not recover.

“The final score would have been a lot different if those open shots hadn’t been missed,” Sandlian said.

Up next for the Panthers is Valley rival Encampment.

“I expect it to be a good game,” coach Sandlian said. “The kids battle each other a lot in basketball season but also play together in the football season. There are friendships that will have to be left on the bench for a few hours.”

The men will face Encampment Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Encampment School gym.