Playing tough competition

The Saratoga Lady Panthers had their first showing for the preseason as they competed in the Burns Tournament over the weekend. While there, the Lady Panthers would deal with three losses, but with two of them against 2A teams.

“I feel like our weekend actually went really well,” said Heather Bartlett, head coach of the Lady Panthers. “We play some really tough 2A competition at this tournament and it’s a great time for us to get a good handle on our strengths and weaknesses. We had two great games against Southeast and Lingle and I thought we really should have won both of those games, we just made some silly mistakes down the stretch in both of those games that cost us.”

Lady Panthers vs.

Lady Cyclones

The first game of the weekend for Saratoga was against the Southeast Lady Cyclones who are the defending 2A State Runner-ups. Despite Southeast playing in the 2A conference, the Lady Panthers were able to keep the score close with a final score of 54-61.

Freshman Whitney Bennett led the team in scoring as she made 13 points against Southeast and had 4 rebounds and 3 steals. Savannah Wells followed with 12 points, 2 steals and 2 assists. Tasia Daley scored 8 points and had 4 rebounds and 3 steals, Taylor Bennett scored 7 points and had 3 rebounds and 3 steals, Jenna Dew scored 6 points and had 4 steals and 3 assists and Sam Fiedor scored 8 points.

Lady Panthers vs.

Lady Doggers

Following their loss to the Lady Cyclones, Saratoga went on to face Lingle-Ft. Laramie. Being the only 1A team they played all weekend, the Lady Panthers kept very close to the team from the southeast conference as they ended the game with a loss by two points, 51-53.

Wells scored 12 points and had 6 rebounds and 4 steals against the Lady Doggers. W. Bennett followed with 9 points, 4 steals and 2 assists. Daley scored 8 points and had 4 rebounds and 2 steals while T. Bennett scored 5 points, had 9 rebounds and 2 steals and Dew had 5 points, 4 rebounds and 5 steals. Fiedor scored 6 points and had 3 rebounds and Makiya Johnson scored 3 points and had 3 rebounds.

Lady Panthers vs.

Lady Hornets

The third and final game for the Lady Panthers was against the 2A Pine Bluffs Lady Hornets. Pine Bluffs placed 3rd during the 2A State Tournament last year and Saratoga would fall to the Lady Hornets with a final score of 28-66.

T. Bennett scored 8 points against Pine Bluffs and had 5 rebounds. Wells followed with 7 points and 5 rebounds and W. Bennett scored 7 points and had 12 rebounds.

“The Pine Bluffs game was a tough game,” Bartlett said. “Pine Bluffs is a very good team. We played better the 2nd half than the 1st after we had some time to get used to playing against opponents who were much taller than we were, but the girls never gave up during the game and we had some good things come out of this game as well.”

Following this weekend, the Lady Panthers are 0-3. Their next outing will be at the Wrangler Invite in Shoshoni on Dec. 20.