Lady Tigers dealt double homecoming defeats

Encampment's Lady Tigers suffered a double-hit over homecoming weekend, losing to their Platte Valley rivals and tough conference contenders on home ground.

The Encampment girls lost 32-48 Friday against Saratoga, and followed up with a 24-44 loss against conference rivals Little Snake River. The Lady Tigers have now dropped to an 8-8 overall record, and a 2-2 record for conference play.

Head coach Amy Clay said the Valley match-up could have been either team's game at the start, after watching her girls beat Saratoga 56-28 in December.

"With these rival games you just never know, because we beat them by 28 at their place and now they bumped us pretty good here," she said. "I think they just came out wanting it worse they we did, and we kind of had to get going in the flow. I kind of kicked a new offense at them, so I think we also kind of struggled a bit with that. Both teams wanted it bad and it just wasn't our night, but I'm not upset with them at all."

The game looked to be either team's at the start, after Encampment trailed Saratoga by only two points at the end of the first half. The Lady Panthers then turned it on the second half leading to a 16-point win.

For the Lady Tigers, Cassidy Little was Friday's top scorer at 15 points, while Alyssa Barkhurst made nine, and McKenzie Powell and Konnar Knotwell scored four each.

Saturday's game, however, was entirely owned by the hot scoring Lady Rattlers, and Encampment couldn't keep up or score. Out of the 24 points, Barkhurst scored nine, Little managed eight, Knotwell netted five and Powell aced two.

With Little Snake River's 13-3 overall record and 4-0 record for conference, Clay said she knew the Lady Rattlers would be tough. However, she admired her girls' willingness to never give up in the face of hard competition.

"I'm proud of their effort, and they never quit," Clay said. "I've got young kids and I wouldn't trade them for anybody. They're going to be pretty good, I really believe that. We've just got to take our lumps."

Counting Friday's win and Saturday's 36-44 loss against Big Piney, Saratoga's Lady Panthers sit at 7-17 overall and 0-4 for conference. Head coach Matt Love said he saw much improvement over the past week, in preparation for last weekend's face-off.

"After playing last Saturday I really saw a lot of improvement," he said. "The press really worked well at the beginning, but then we let them back in it. Cassidy kind of went off on us and she's a good player, so we had to shut her down. We also got some really good rebounds at the end, but the pressing was a little tough to go all out tonight."

For the Lady Panthers, Meredith Lincoln scored 16 points, while Heather Oxford aced 14, Justine Fourman managed eight, Haley Soles nabbed seven and Katie Loose sank two.

"I think efficient passing, being patient and just knowing where we are on the floor and making good plays out of it helped us out," Lincoln said.

Given the illness and injury within the team, Love said he knew the game was going to be interesting from the get-go.

"Considering the injuries and sickness that effected four of our starters and basically bringing a team that mostly had only JV experience, we knew this was going to be an interesting game," he said. "After playing so badly in the first meeting at the beginning of the season, we had much to prove in this game. Our girls went through some ups and downs, but they really played hard and I was very proud of them."

Love said he was happy with the Panthers' team defense and overall rebounding, but that offense could use some work.

"Offensively, we're still missing easy baskets that we can't afford to be missing, not in our league anyway," he said. "We have to capitalize on the easy baskets because missing outside shots is one thing, but missing the easy ones at our level is unacceptable. If we keep playing hard on defense, take care of the boards and start making our easy baskets, it could make for an interesting February. We must do these things though to compete in our conference, and the adversity we've had to deal with lately will hopefully make us stronger in the long run."

Next for Encampment's Lady Tigers are two more weekend conference match-ups. Friday's game is at Farson-Eden, whose team the Lady Tigers beat once this season, and Saturday's play is at Cokeville.

Saratoga gets conference match-ups against the Pine Bluffs Lady Hornets Friday and host the Southeast Lady Cyclones at 4 p.m. on Saturday.