Lady Panthers on fire in Burns

The Saratoga Lady Panthers basketball team walked out of their first tournament 3-0. After handily defeating the Moorcroft Lady Wolves and the Shoshoni Lady Wranglers on Friday they took home a one-point win against Lingle-Fort Laramie with some clutch last-second plays.

After not really knowing what to expect according to Saratoga head coach Scott Bokelman, the Lady Panthers executed well on both offense and defense. Bokelman had the girls play man defense for the entire game which resulted in some foul trouble, but didn't stop the girls from pulling off a decisive 56-38 win over Moorcroft.

"The Shoshoni game was tough the entire time but we ended up pulling away from them," Bokelman said of the Friday night game. The Lady Wranglers came out strong in the first quarter but the Lady Panthers persevered and outscored Shoshoni by 9 points in the second half ending the game 45-35.

In their first conference match against Laramie-Fort Lingle on Saturday the Lady Panthers had to work for their win up until the last seconds of the game. Meredith Lincoln made the winning shot from near the baseline with eight seconds left. A focused Lady Panther defense didn't even let the Lady Doggers get a shot off after they inbounded the ball in the last four seconds. In the end Lingle-Fort Laramie fell to Saratoga 31-30. "What was really pleasing is the kids didn't panic," Bokelman said after the win.

After starting the weekend with solely man defense, Bokelman switched to a mixture of man and zone defenses. This seemed to save the ladies some trouble with fouls.

Bokelman credits the wins to a team effort. "Everybody that played did a nice job," Bokelman said.

Meredith Lincoln scored 32 in one game and 23 in the other, she's a great shooter and a team player Bokelman said. Cruz Escobedo played a great game as point guard and also scored a big point against Lingle. Katie Loose and Haley Soles were also strong on defense accounting for a number of rebounds. Sarah Burton gave some quality minutes for the team and was a role model for helping the other players out.

The Lady Panthers will be without starters Lincoln and Soles next week which Bokelman hopes will be a positive thing for the players that have to fill their shoes. Their first game at the Shoshoni tournament will be against Shoshoni who they hope to hand another defeat. Bokelman said he does not know what to expect of the Lady Panthers next two opponents, Rocky Mountain and Cokeville. However, Bokelman is confident in his team based on the way they have been practicing. "Every girl on our basketball team is working hard at practice and helping us to become a better team," Bokelman said. The coach also noted that their hard work paid off last weekend and the ladies saw the payoff.