Tigers smash rival Panthers 64-43

The town of Encampment had plenty to celebrate homecoming weekend, as their hometown Tigers pulverized Saratoga's Panthers 64-43.

The win was not only a great first homecoming game for the Tigers this season, but also payback after December's 60-80 loss to Saratoga. Encampment's star scorer this time was Guy Erickson, who scored 34 points including nine three-pointers Friday.

Head coach Clint Bromley said Erickson's quickness caught Saratoga off-guard and led to several open shots.

"He's a kid that can definitely go off on you, and if you give him an open look, he can darn sure make a basket on you," he said. "We expect other teams to come in and do all kinds of things to play him tough. We try to give him open looks the best we can, and tonight he was stroking them pretty good. It was definitely a plus for us and a good solid night for him."

After Friday's win and Saturday's 38-62 loss to Little Snake River, the Tigers are still 12-4 overall, and 2-2 conference. After a close first half against Saratoga, Bromley said he was happy to see his boys pull ahead in the second half.

The Tigers were up by 13 at the end of the third, and kept moving toward the final 21-point difference.

"We're obviously pleased with how the game came out," Bromley said. "We just didn't want our kids to panic, and we've got to come and play our game too. They came out in the first couple minutes, and the first half of that first quarter had a really good start. It took us a little while to get moving, but things came together."

Following Erickson's massive 34-point performance was Luke Pantle (14 points), Harold Jackson (7), Matt Jarrett (4), David Flauding (3) and Brett Miller (2).

After Friday's loss, Saratoga's Panthers also lost 50-63 to Big Piney Saturday, putting their season record at 9-9 overall and 0-4 for conference. While against Encampment, John Brennan scored 15 points, Braxton Schwartzkopf made 10, Ben Falk aced eight, Cameron Collamer secured five, Ryan Malone netted three and Seth Harrison and Emmanuel Pattishall-Baker garnered one point each.

Sandlian said it was hard to battle Encampment's top scorers during Friday's game.

"Luke and Guy were hot, and when two shooters are hot, there's not a whole lot we can do about that," he said. "We got to do a better job at getting a hand in their face, and playing good defense on them. When we run our offensive sets when we don't have the transitioning game, we're pretty darn good. When we get out of that and not run our sets, it changes the outlook of the game."

Encampment's Tigers will play two more conference matchups, one at Farson-Eden Friday and another at Cokeville Saturday. Saratoga also moves into conference territory this weekend, playing at Pine Bluffs Friday and at home against Southeast Saturday at 4 p.m.