Getting the baseline

The Saratoga Lady Panthers hosted one game and traveled for two this past weekend as they faced the Dubois Lady Rams on Friday, the Southeast Lady Cyclones on Saturday morning and the Lingle-Fort Laramie Lady Doggers on Saturday afternoon.

The Lady Panthers went 1-3 for their first trio of games in the season, but Head Coach Heather Bartlett was happy with what she saw overall. With only one game left before the Christmas break, there is plenty of time to fine tune using the Saturday games as a baseline.

Lady Panthers vs. Lady Rams

On Friday afternoon, the Lady Rams entered the Panther Den following their first loss of the day against the Encampment Lady Tigers. Last year, Dubois was unable to field a time and is, essentially, starting from scratch this season. 

Bartlett said she was happy that Dubois was able to field a team this year and, having the Lady Panthers as their second game of the day had some impact in the final score of 57-14. In fact, Bartlett was able to play her junior varsity players for two quarters without losing the substantial lead over Dubois.

Whitney Bennett had 9 two-point field goals against Dubois and a successful 3-point shot. Benett also had 5 assists, 2 offensive rebounds, 3 defensive rebounds and 7 steals. Sam Fiedor had 1 two-point field goal, 9 offensive rebounds, 2 defensive rebounds, 2 steals and went 1 of 3 at the free throw line. Sam Duke also had 1 two-point field goal and went 1 of 3 at the free throw line and had 2 offensive rebounds.

Though the game ended in a win for Saratoga, Bartlett said she told the Lady Panthers that it wouldn't be a match that would provide the girls a baseline going forward into the season nor in their Saturday games.

Lady Panthers vs. Lady Cyclones

In the case of Southeast, the score only tells part of the story.

"I think we were 1 point ahead going into half-time, actually, and they came out and hit five 3-pointers in a row in the 3rd quarter," said Bartlett. "Which I don't think would be typical, normally, so we lost our momentum a little bit but did come back and get within 10 (points) a couple times in the 4th quarter."

While the Lady Panthers did their best to dig in their claws against the flurry from Southeast, they eventually lost 33-45. Despite that, Saratoga provided their coach with a baseline to work off of over the break.

Bennett had another successful 3-point shot and went 5 of 13 on the free throw line. She also had 2 offensive rebounds, 8 defensive rebounds and 5 steals. Fiedor went 1 of 3 at the free throw line and had 2 offensive rebounds. Savannah Wells went 4 of 10 on the free throw line, had 2 offensive rebounds, 5 defensive rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.

Lady Panthers vs. Lady Doggers

Following their loss to Southeast, the Lady Panthers traveled to Lingle-Fort Laramie for their second game of the day. While the Lady Doggers were fresh and on their home court, Saratoga had just arrived from a difficult game against the Lady Cyclones.

"I felt like we played as well against Lingle. They're not as good a team as Southeast is, overall," Bartlett said. "I felt like we kind of had it in the bag and we kind of let it slip away from us but we did play hard the whole game and I was happy with our defense. Our man-to-man defense is looking pretty good."

Despite a tough game earlier that day, Saratoga kept the score close as they fell to the Lady Doggers 47-50.

Bennett secured another 3-pointer against Lingle-Fort Laramie, went 5 of 15 at the free throw line and had 6 offensive rebounds and 11 defensive rebounds. Fiedor went 2 of 8 at the free throw line, had 3 offensive rebounds and 2 defensive rebounds. Wells joined the 3-point club with one of her own and went 2 of 6 at the free throw line.

With a baseline now formed, Bartlett sees what the girls will need to work on before the regular season begins.

"For sure our free throws, we're going to have to really work on (those). Especially for specific girls getting there but that's a really fixable thing. That's one of the most fixable things is your free throw percentages," said Bartlett. "I was pretty happy with our defense. Obviously, there's lots of room for improvement but I felt like our defense is fairly solid for this time of the season. Then just some of our rebounding, we need to bump up those rebounding statistics a little bit."

The Saratoga Lady Panthers will host the Guernsey Lady Vikings at 4 p.m. on December 18 at Saratoga Middle High School.