Ladies lose conference game to Southeast
Amber Young works to pressure the ball from a Little Snake River opponent. Young subsequently was injured on the play and did not return to the game.
The Lady Panthers had two games last week against Southeast on Friday and Little Snake River on Saturday.
Southeast (10-4) (2-1) is in the Panthers (6-10) (0-5) conference and struggled early on.
“I thought Southeast would dominate the conference this year,” head coach Matt Love said in an email. “They have started off the season slow, but they’re getting on track now.”
Southeast proved to be a shooting team scoring 35 points in the first half and 30 in the second half. The final score was 35-65.
“They have a lot of seniors, good guards and one of the best post players in the state,” Love said. “They were on fire as the guards were making everything they shot. Their posts were out-rebounding us on our defensive end and getting putbacks .”
Taylor Smith led the Panthers again with 17 points and Justine Fourman scored 9 in her effort. Smith scored 8 of her points from the free throw line and found two rebounds.
“Smith did a great job of going to the basket and getting to the free throw line,” coach Love said.
Fourman pulled in four rebounds and had three steals on the night with Mati Love and Veronica Lincoln both contributing to the rebounding with five each.
“I’m very excited to play them again in a couple of weeks because I know we will rebound better and I’m not sure they can shoot like that again,” coach Love said. “If they do, then they are definitely for real.”
The next night, Little Snake River came to the Panther Den in a game that the Lady Panthers won 47-42. Snake River is ranked number four in the 1A class and the Panthers handled them from the start.
“I was really happy to come off a long road trip from the night before and perform the way we did,” Love said.
In the first half the Lady Panthers had amassed 34 points to Snake River’s 17.
Veronica Lincoln led the Lady Panthers in the half and was especially effective in the second quarter. Lincoln was all offense and after making one basket, she stole the ball and made another. When fouled, Lincoln stayed solid making 2 of 3 free throws in the game.
“Veronica Lincoln really sparked the team in the second quarter with her aggressive defense and the scoring rampage she went on,” Love said.
Lincoln finished the game with 12 points and four steals.
Justine Fourman lit up the rim with 15 total points including two from the arc and 3 points from the line. Fourman scored all of the Lady Panther’s 5 points in the third quarter, and also grabbed four rebounds and had one block and one steal.
Mati Love and Taylor Smith both found 7 points, and Love rebounded ten times backed with four steals. Heather Oxford shot four times from the line and was 100 percent for her 4 points on the night. Oxford also had six rebounds and two assists.
“In the second half, we started off with some turnovers and they (Snake River) played hard to get back into it,” Love said. “We ended up winning, but it was a close one down the stretch. Our first half really shows how our girls can play but we’re still looking to put four quarters together. It was frustrating to give up a 17-point lead, we almost let this one slip away.”
Coming up for the Lady Panthers is a pair of non-conference, away games at Hanna-Elk Mountain-Medicine Bow on Friday at 4 p.m. and at Big Piney Saturday at 1 p.m.
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