Lady Panthers take out Lady Pronghorns

The Saratoga Lady Panthers finished two of the last three conference games they have in the regular season over the weekend. They were hosted by the Farson-Eden Lady Pronghorns (7-13, 2-5) on Friday and the Cokeville Lady Panthers (16-2, 6-0) on Saturday. Still in the No. 2 spot of the 1A Southwest Conference, the Saratoga girls went 1-1 over the Valentine’s weekend.

Lady Panthers vs.

Lady Pronghorns

“This was a great conference road win for us,” said Heather Bartlett, head coach of the Lady Panthers. “It was a pretty sloppy game, I didn’t feel like we played our best, but the girls played hard the whole game and we got a really good win.”

“Against the Lady Pronghorns it was a fun game overall,” said senior Jenna Dew. “I really think the team had fun playing that game.”

“We pulled away at the end, but the game was actually a little closer than the score shows,” Bartlett said.

Freshman Whitney Bennett led Saratoga with 26 points against the Lady Pronghorns and 19 rebounds. Following W. Bennett was Savannah Wells with 12 points and Taylor Bennett with 8 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Senior Makiya Johnson contributed 7 points, 8 rebounds and 3 steals for a team win and Dew scored 2 points and had 8 rebounds and 5 steals.

While Bartlett admits that W. Bennett had a “standout game,” she added “much of the credit for our win should also go to Tasia Dayley and Savannah Wells, who both had outstanding defensive games and held Farson’s two best scorers to 6 and 3 points. This was a huge part of our win on Friday.”

The final score against Farson-Eden was 57-44.

Lady Panthers vs. Lady Panthers

With a Valentine’s Day conference win under their belt, Saratoga was hosted by the other Lady Panthers of the 1A Southwest Conference the following day. Much like their first meeting earlier in the season, Cokeville would ultimately deal a loss to Saratoga.

“This was a terrible game for us,” Bartlett said. “We did not show up mentally ready to play basketball. We were very sloppy and not focused on what we needed to do at all.”

Bartlett added that her Lady Panthers appear to have a mental block when it comes to playing Cokeville.

“I, as a coach, have to take a lot of the blame because I didn’t have them ready to play a better game,” said Bartlett.

“Against the Lady Panthers it wasn’t how we thought it was going to turn out,” Dew said, “but I feel we all ran our hardest even though we couldn’t really shoot that day.”

T. Bennett was the lead scorer with 9 points against Cokeville. Dew followed with 7 points and 3 rebounds. W. Bennett scored 5 points and had 9 rebounds. Sam Duke and Sam Fiedor each contributed 2 points.

The final score against Cokeville was 25-78.

With the regular season nearly at a close, the Lady Panthers have one final conference game before they prepare for the 1A West Regional Tournament. On Friday, Saratoga will host the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Lady Rattlers (11-9, 4-2). The 1-1 weekend does not appear to have shaken the Lady Panther’s spirit.

“On Friday, I feel the game against the Lady Rattlers will turn out really well and looking to take the ‘dub’ (win),” said Dew. “This year our season is turning out really well compared to last year. As we prepare for regionals, I think it’s a really good booster for us knowing that we won’t have a pigtail game like we did last year.”

Following this weekend, the Lady Panthers are 10-8 for the season and 5-2 in conference play.

The Saratoga Lady Panthers will host the LSRV Lady Rattlers beginning at 3 p.m. at Saratoga High School.