Tough weekend for Lady Panthers

The Saratoga Lady Panthers had a rough weekend as they just barely went 0-2 following a loss to the Encampment Lady Tigers (30-34) on Friday evening and falling to the visiting Rock River Lady Longhorns (45-50) on Saturday. Both games were hard lessons for the Lady Panthers, who had trouble following through on rebounds and struggled with their defense.

Saratoga vs.

Encampment

The varsity game between the Lady Panthers and the Lady Tigers (5-5, 1-0) started off the evening as Saratoga faced the seven-member Encampment girls' team. The Lady Panthers had a rough start that kept them behind as Encampment stayed ahead of Saratoga. During the game, it seemed that the Lady Panthers were having difficulty attempting rebounds.

"The first half against Encampment, I felt we just struggled to put an entire four quarters together," said Heather Bartlett, head coach of the Saratoga Lady Panthers. "I was a little upset about the effort that they were giving me in the first half against Encampment. The second half, they really tried as hard as they can. We just had the worst shooting game ever."

As the game went into halftime, Saratoga trailed 15-20, but would come back onto the court in an attempt to close the gap and overcome their Valley rivals. While both teams continued to struggle in successful shooting and defense, the Lady Panthers could not overcome Encampment.

"We shot 11 percent from the field and we shot 8 of 25 free throws. Really, if we could have gotten anything to fall we would have won that game pretty easily," Bartlett said.

Despite their best attempts to close the gap between themselves and the Lady Tigers, Saratoga ended up falling short as the game ended with their first conference loss of the season, 30-34.

"We just gave up an enormous amount of points by shooting poorly in Encampment, but I was really happy with their effort in the second half," said Bartlett.

Saratoga vs. Rock River

Saturday evening, the Lady Panthers hosted Rock River (8-1, 0-0) in the Panther Den and would see many of the same struggles from the night before. The Lady Longhorns easily flustered Saratoga, who ended up missing shots throughout the first quarter. Rock River would lead the Lady Panthers by 11 points going into the second quarter with Saratoga having scored only 2 points.

The Lady Panthers continued to struggle in the second quarter as they attempted to close the gap between themselves and Rock River. While they scored more points, so too did the Lady Longhorns who consistently sank 3-point shots to increase their lead. Similar attempts by Saratoga were unsuccessful and the 2-point shots and occasional rebound were enough to get the Lady Panthers ahead as they went into the half trailing 13-29.

"We started kind of slow, but I felt like we came on a lot faster in this game then we did in Encampment. The lid kind of came off, a few of them started finding their shots in the second half. Rock River's quite a good team and we scored more against them," Bartlett said.

Coming back, Saratoga seemed to start finding their legs as Bartlett switched up the defense from man-on-man to zone. The Lady Panthers also started to become more aggressive on their rebounds and put more thought into their shots, which threw the Lady Longhorns off at first. Rock River, however, adapted and maintained their lead.

"I felt like, especially the last two and a half, three quarters, we played really well against a really good Rock River team," said Bartlett.

The fourth quarter saw even more of Saratoga getting aggressive on the court and fighting to get the ball. During most of the game, the Lady Panthers trailed by double digits, but brought the score close in what felt like a possible win for the girls. As the game came to a close, however, Rock River was ahead by 5 points. Saratoga lost to the Lady Longhorns, 45-50.

Following their two losses, the Saratoga Lady Panthers are 3-6 for the season and 0-1 for conference. This weekend, the Lady Panthers only have one game as they cross the border to take on the North Park Lady Wildcats at 4 p.m. in Walden, Colo.