Lady Panthers beat HEM; drop barn burner to Lusk

The Lady Panthers hosted Hanna-Elk Mountain-Medicine Bow (HEM) Friday and Saratoga came out on top 57-23.

“I was really happy with our play, especially from our bench,” coach Matt Love wrote in an email. “Coach Jones, as always, has her girls playing very hard for her. They never give up.”

The game started slow and senior Taylor Smith was again the first to put points on the board for the Lady Panthers. Saratoga came together and the team was playing a full court press that paid off for the Panthers. Taylor Miller had a key block in the first that ignited the Panthers, and Shelby McGuire hit a three that put the crowd on their feet. With the Panthers up 8-1 mid-way in the first, the press started to create turnovers and the Panthers had a demanding lead of 14-5 at the end of one. Justine Fourman had her usual good game with two rebounds, two blocks and four steals and Mati Love kept the ball on the Panther’s end with good defense and steals in the second quarter. Heather Oxford fired up early and dominated under the offensive rim, finishing the night with seven rebounds followed closely by Love’s six rebounds.

At the halftime buzzer, the Panthers were all together, leading 28-11. Saratoga came out of the locker room and pulled well ahead of HEM. McGuire was on fire from the field, and she hit half of her attempted free throws racking up 14 points on the night. Saratoga was still playing in the press, creating turnovers the Panthers were capitalizing on. Smith had a steal late in the third quarter she converted as a Lady Miner fouled her, and Smith made her extra free throw to go up 43-15 at the end of the third. The Panthers continued to rebound well on the offensive end of the court led by Oxford with four offensive boards and backed by Love and Smith with three each. Cruz Escobedo, another Panther that had a great game against HEM, scored 6 points and rebounded twice with four assists. The Panthers dominated the game, and at the final buzzer they were on top 57-23.

The next night was a conference game for the Lady Panthers (5-9) (0-4) against the Lusk Tigers (9-4) (4-1). Lusk started the game in their usual full court press, and although both teams were playing very aggressive basketball it was a tough start for the Lady Panthers. Lusk created quite a few turnovers at halfcourt and that made it hard for the Panthers to set up on offense.

The first quarter ended with Lusk up 3-12, but the second showed the Lady Panthers playing better against the Lusk press.

At this point the game got very aggressive and there were a lot of players slamming to the hard-wood. Smith played good defense this quarter, but Lusk had big players and were making their shots on offense. Escobedo played very tough and got hammered throughout the second quarter. Lusk continued to make good shots and force turn overs and it seemed that the score was slipping away from the Lady Panthers at halftime.

Coming out of the locker room down by 13 points the Lady Panthers turned it on. Love hit a 3 pointer early that lit the fire under her team and continued to score well throughout the quarter. Smith continued to play well on both offense and defense, and Justine Fourman found a shot from the arc that fell. Love backed her offensive effort with another 3 pointer and it looked as if the Panthers were mounting a come back. Turnovers continued to hamper the offense of the Panthers but the ladies found a way to out score 19 points to Lusk’s 13 in the third. The quarter ended with the Panthers only down by 7 and it looked to be a great fourth quarter.

Smith again started the scoring in the fourth and continued to hit key shots and free throws to bring the Panthers within 6 late in the quarter. Fourman hit another 3 pointer late to pull her team within 3, but fouled out of the game on the in-bound pass from Lusk. Mati Love also fouled out late in the game and with two key players on the bench, the rest of the Panthers stepped up. Although the Lady Panthers fought to the end, Lusk finished with solid free throws and the time ran out on the Lady Panthers. Saratoga lost the game by only 4 in what turned out to be real barn burner.

“I was very proud of our girls,” Love said. “After only scoring 11 points in the first half, we came back in the second half scoring 33 points. We really wanted this game, but things didn’t go our way in the closing minute of the game. We definitely did some good things this weekend to build off of.”

Up next for the Lady Panthers is another conference game on the road against Southeast on Friday, and a game against Snake River at home on Saturday.

“Southeast is going to be a very tough conference game,” Love said. “Hopefully we can find some consistency and work on putting 32 minutes of basketball together.”

Saturday’s home games start at noon at the Panther Den.