Lady Panthers win Valley upset

The Saratoga Lady Panthers (0-2, 2A Southeast, 6-7 overall) squeaked out a 49 to 45 win against Carbon County School District No. 2 rival, Encampment Lady Tigers (1-2, 1A Southwest, 9-6 overall) Friday night, only to fall 28 to 59 against Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) (2-1, 1A Southwest, 10-6 overall) Rattlers at Baggs.

Against the Lady Tigers, the Lady Panthers took a strong lead in the first quarter 12 to 6. In the second quarter, the Panthers had a 14 point lead at one point, maintained a 10 point lead and ended the first half 27 to 17.

Lady Tiger Micaiah Pantle suffered an injury in the second quarter and was out of the game. She tore a ligament in her right thumb. Pantle went to pass the ball and it came back and hit her in the thumb when she fell. "I went to the doctor (Saturday) and he doesn't know how bad it is," Pantle said.

Pantle is going to see a specialist and depending on the diagnosis, she may be out two-to-six weeks.

In the second half, the Lady Tigers regrouped and outscored the Lady Panthers tightening the score with the Lady Panthers at 45 and the Lady Tigers at 38 with 1 minute 15 second left in the game.

A foul against the Lady Tigers took them to the line, where the McKenzie Powell scored 2.

Justine Fourman added 4 points with her fast break layups widening the lead 49 to 42.

Alyssa Barkhurst scored 2 points with 4.5 seconds remaining in the game, narrowing the Panthers lead. Barkhurst scored 1 point at the line with the Lady Tigers taking the rebound on Barkhurst's second shot. Encampment did not turn the rebound into a score.

The Panthers' top scorers Meredith Lincoln had 18 points, with Justine Fourman having a double double of 20 points and 11 rebounds.

Comparatively, Encampment's top players Cassidy Little had 18 points while Alyssa Barkhurst had 13 points.

"We shot 57 percent from the field, but the turnovers were our demise," Encampment's head coach Amy Clay said.

The Lady Panthers shot 40 percent from the field and had 25 turnovers to the Tigers 30.

The game was pretty physical at some points, whith girls on both sides fighting for the ball. "It is going to be intense when the kids know each other," Panthers head coach Scott Bokelman said. He described it as a friendly rivalry where neither team wants to lose.

"We played a pretty darn good, but the last two minutes didn't play so well," Bokelman said.

He credited the Lady Tigers for a hard run at the Panthers. "We just didn't handle it very well."

LSRV game

The Lady Panthers loss to the LSRV Rattlers had a lot to do with the Rattlers defense.

"They played man-to-man and put their best players on us and our people didn't play as well," Bokelman said.

Bokelman used the opportunity to put in subs, to give them practice time for the next game.

"Snake River is a very good team," Bokelman said. "We played really well for for almost all of the first half."

In the second half, the Rattlers shots started falling and the Panthers couldn't get anything to fall.

With a strong defense, the Rattlers held Lincoln and Fourman to half their point average with Lincoln sinking 6 points and Fourman getting 10 points.

Lincoln had seven steals during the game, but they weren't uncontested when she reached the front line. The Rattlers were pretty quick, Bokelman said.

With Lincoln and Fourman being guarded so heavily, the other girls needed to step up, Bokelman said. "We can't rely on two people." Bokelman continues to emphasize that the other girls need to take the shot when it is good. The more the shoot, the more comfortable they will become with it, Bokelman said.

"They work hard at practice," Bokelman said, "But is difficult to simulate a game." Bokelman will continue to concentrate on basic skills this week.

The Panthers are playing teams at both ends of the 1A Southeast Conference, with Southeast holding the No. 1 spot and Lusk in the No. 5 spot. Saratoga is currently at No. 4, in the WYOPREPS ranking.

"Whoever you are playing, do the best you can," Bokelman told his team. "I tell them that each game is a faceless opponent."

The team is going to have to learn to make moves against taller people, Bokelman said.

He is seeing improvement with the screening and said they defensively took a step forward. "We just need to figure out how to do it for four quarters," Bokelman said.

"We need more scoring, they are really scrappy on the defense, if we can stay in the game, we got a chance," Bokelman said.

Friday, the Lady Panthers travel to Lusk with play beginning at 4 p.m., for the junior varsity.

Game time Saturday is 1 p.m., as the Panthers host Southeast.

 

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