Lady Panthers on top of rivalry

The Saratoga Lady Panthers took on a six-member Tiger (1-7), (0-2) team in Encampment Thursday night. With freshman Shawneka Sifford out, the Lady Tigers were left with only one sub on the bench against Saratoga (3-4), (0-2).

On the other side of the court, Saratoga was almost back to full strength after suffering from illness and injury, including coach Matt Love, who was battling the flu himself two weeks ago on the road.

“I think it will be good tonight, we are still missing one starter, senior Taylor Smith, but we have Shelby McGuire and Heather Oxford back tonight,” Love said before the game.

The Panthers deployed those renewed numbers early, pressing the ball against Encampment’s fundamental offense. Turnovers plagued both teams, though and neither scored until midway through the first quarter, when Panther Justine Fourman found the hoop for two points.

Fourman played her usual solid game contributing 8 points and seven rebounds on the night.

“It was a good win,” Fourman said. “But we didn’t play as well as we wanted to.”

Kelsie Samson added to the Panthers’ effort with 8 points of her own and snagged four steals on defense.

“We’re still trying to find some consistency and come into our style of play,” Love wrote in an email. “It has been a challenge having sickness and injuries taking a toll already. Hopefully, we’re getting all of that out of the way early and we can start playing some basketball for the remainder of the season.”

After limited play the week before, Lady Panther Heather Oxford returned in full force putting up her first double double of the season.

“It was good to have (Heather) back last night,” Love said. “This is the kind of game we were seeing Heather play at the end of last year, so its good to see her have a double double this early in the season. Hopefully she can build off of this game as we enter the New Year.”

Oxford tallied 15 points, 10 rebounds and three steals on the night.

Instead of sickness, lack of players has increasingly hampered a young Encampment team.

The Lady Tigers started the season with eight players on the roster, but have lost two girls dropping their ranks to six players.

Saratoga filled the first half with a full court press and turnovers from the tired Tigers allowed Saratoga to hold the lead through the first half.

“Saratoga put a lot of pressure on the ball, at times we struggled to make the easy pass and we turned it over,” Encampment coach Amy Clay said.

The Lady Panthers closed the first half with an eleven-point lead and kept rolling in the third quarter.

“I’m going to ask Santa to give us games with no half time,” Clay said. “I’m baffled as to why the third quarter is so hard on us.”

The Lady Tigers, down 30-16 midway through the third quarter, couldn’t find daylight and seemed to confirm Clay’s theory of a third quarter jinx. Encampment recovered momentum and put together a fourth quarter rally, but it wasn’t enough.

“We scored 1 point to their 13 in the third,” Clay said. “But then we outscored them in the fourth, 16-6.”

Encampment, with one sub, fought hard the entire game and Cassidy Little led the way with 14 points and ten rebounds. Freshman Alyssa Barkhurst followed with 9 points and Jennifer Morgan, Taylor Pedersen and Michelle Hooker all contributed with ten points between them.

The final buzzer came too soon for the Tigers ending a 33-46 loss against Saratoga.

The Lady Panthers travel to Ethete Thursday and Friday to play in the Fremont Holiday Tournament, and Encampment will have a chance to rest until Jan. 5 when they play Hanna-Elk Mountain-Medicine Bow in Encampment.

As of press time, no stats where available.