The Saratoga Lady Panthers (1-2) came home with a win against 2A Wind River Lady Cougars this weekend. Although they had losses against Lingle/Fort Laramie and Shoshoni at the Winter Classic in Burns, they played hard, Saratoga High School Head Coach Scott Bokelman said.
The Lady Panthers lost to Lingle/Fort Laramie 57-64 Friday afternoon, then played Shoshoni Friday night and lost 52-55. Their winning game had a score of 62-35, with the junior varsity getting some varsity experience during that game.
Bokelman was pleased with the Lady Panther’s performance on the court. “They played hard,” Bokelman said. The team had really good man-to-man press and executed their offense fairly well.
“It takes time to get perfected,” Bokelman said. “Even though we lost, there were a lot of things they did right.”
Turnovers hurt the girls in their game against Lingle/Fort Laramie Doggers. The Lady Panthers had 24 turnovers against the Lady Doggers. Lingle/Fort Laramie were the 1A state champions last year. By the time the Lady Panthers played the Shoshoni Wranglers, Friday night, the girls were already showing improvement and reduced their turnovers to eight, Bokelman said. Some of those turnovers resulted with the Lady Doggers having a chance at the free-throw line. Bokelman said he believed the Lady Panthers would have had a pretty good shot at winning if they hadn’t had so many turnovers against the Lady Doggers.
With less turnovers against Shoshoni, the Lady Panthers 3-point loss was because of the Wranglers’ post player. Bokelman said she was pretty hard to get past and her teammates were getting the ball to her.
Bokelman was happy with his team in their performances. Meredith Lincoln scored 19 points against the Doggers, 23 points against the Wranglers and 13 points against the Cougars. Justine Fourman scored 11 points against the Doggers, 11 points against the Wranglers and 22 points against the Cougars. Katie Loose scored 12 points against the Wranglers.
Leading in steals against the Doggers were Cruz Escobedo, Kelsie Samson and Loose. Loose and Mati Love had two steals each against the Wranglers, with Fourman leading with five steals against the Cougars. Lincoln had a total of 20 rebounds over the weekend, with Fourman having 15 rebounds and Samson pulling in 11 rebounds.
Bokelman said he would like to see Loose and Haley Soles scoring more. “We need to get them comfortable enough to start shooting,” Bokelman said.
Bokelman said he will work on timing this week. He said when the Lady Panthers don’t take advantage of an open player and wait to throw the ball, that gives the opponent the advantage. Bokelman wants his girls to throw the ball without hesitating when the have an open teammate.
Bokelman was just as happy with his junior varsity girls who played half of the game against Wind River.
“The effort was great and the attitudes were good,” Bokelman said of the team.
Friday, the team plays against Hanna/Elk Mountain/Medicine Bow (HEM) Lady Miners and the Lady Panthers will be working on basics this week.
The Panthers host the Miners with game time for boys Junior Varsity at 4 p.m. The Lady Miners do not have a JV team, so the girls varsity game will begin earlier than the scheduled time of 5:30 p.m.
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