Lady Panthers take first conference win

The Saratoga Lady Panthers went to Burns last Friday and brought home their first conference win of the season.

In a low-scoring, defensive battle Saratoga (1-5 conference, 4-10 overall) had more stamina and took Burns (2-4, 8-11) down 26-22. Lady Panthers Head Coach Heather Bartlett credits her girls' strong defense for holding the Lady Broncs to such a low score.

The first half of the game in Burns ended with the Lady Panthers down by 2 at 9-11. After that the Saratoga girls built up some steam scoring 9 points in the third quarter and 12 points in fourth giving them the 4-point win.

Shaelee Hamann was good from the post, something the Lady Panthers have been working toward all season. Hamann put up 10 points and contributed to the strong defense with eight rebounds. The Lady Panthers pulled down 33 boards, 21 on defense, against Burns showing that their focus on rebounding is paying off. The girls worked as a team for the win with Katie Loose taking seven rebounds while both Cruz Escobedo and Meredith Lincoln grabbed five rebounds each. Lincoln also put up 9 points while Cruz added 6 to the scoreboard.

The 2A Southeast conference leading Pine Bluffs Lady Hornets (5-0, 17-1) came to Saratoga last Saturday with their 6-foot power forward Azhane Bufford. The bigger Pine Bluffs team took advantage of the smaller Lady Panthers who got back from Burns late the night before. Escobedo had succumbed to an ongoing illness by Saturday and was unable to play.

After keeping it close for the first four minutes of the first quarter, the Lady Hornets pulled ahead on a 10-point run and never looked back. In the face of adversity, the Lady Panthers never gave up. In fact, Lincoln came out in the second half with a look of determination and played a strong, physical game until the final buzzer.

The final score of 35-66 does not reflect how good the Lady Panthers looked on the court.

The height of the Pine Bluffs girls took away Saratoga's ability to match the rebounding performance shown on Friday in Burns. The team only took down 13 from the boards. Lincoln led the Lady Panthers scoring with 6 points followed by Sarah Burton with 3 points.

Lincoln's nine steals broke the Saratoga single-game record.

This week the Lady Panthers take on a team they beat in December, the Lingle-Ft. Laramie Lady Doggers (3-0, 8-8), at Saturday's home game that starts at 5:30 p.m. On Friday, the Saratoga girls host the Hanna-Elk Mountain-Medicine Bow Lady Miners (3-0, 8-5) starting at 5:30 p.m. Both games are non-conference matches.