Jace Berger prepares for a pass during the Panthers' game against Little Snake River Valley. Saratoga lost 52-66, and currently holds an 8-5 non-conference season record.
Saratoga High School's varsity boys' basketball team suffered another home loss Saturday, with a 52-66 bite from Little Snake River's Rattlers.
With Saturday's loss and Friday's 35-59 loss against Burns, the Panthers are now at 8-5 (non-conference) and 0-2 (conference). Saratoga's junior varsity team also lost to the Rattlers Saturday, with 19-47.
It was a close matchup for most of Saturday's varsity game, with the Panthers leading 22-17 at the end of the first quarter, and the Rattlers leading 49-45 by the third's end. The teams tied with seven minutes left in the game, but Little Snake River zoomed ahead shortly afterward, reaching 64-51 with around one minute remaining.
Coach Josh Sandlian said that regardless of the loss, he was proud of his boys for hustling hard and never giving up on the court.
"I felt we really played aggressively and got after Baggs, but we just came up a bit short tonight," he said. "We hustled our butts off, and we were great from the free-throw line. We only missed five shots all night from the free-throw line. We're still getting our form back shooting-wise from Christmas, but we'll be fine."
For the first time in one of this season's home games, Jace Berger came out as the top scorer of the night, with a total of 13 points. He followed by Ben Falk with 10 points, Braxton Schwartzkopf with nine, Ryan Malone with seven, Cameron Collamer with five, John Brennan and Darian Williams had three each and Seth Harrison had two.
"Jace played great and helped us out a ton tonight, and he had a great game," Sandlian said.
The Panthers play at Lusk, in their third conference matchup of the season, this Saturday. Sandlian said he was ready to move on from the Little Snake River game, and look forward to what is in store for his team this weekend.
"We're done with this game and we're focused on Lusk for next week," he said. "That's the one that really matters. We're focused on Lusk, and we're going to go up there and be aggressive, turn it on and get after them."
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