Lady Panthers scratched by conference foes

It was a difficult weekend for the Saratoga Lady Panthers as they went 0-2 while on the road against two conference rivals.

On Friday, Saratoga was hosted by the No. 1 Cokeville Lady Panthers (11-4, 5-0) and by the No. 2 Farson Eden Lady Pronghorns (8-6, 5-1) on Saturday. While both matches would eventually result in a loss, Head Coach Heather Bartlett saw some good things on the court from the Lady Panthers.

Lady Panthers vs.

Lady Panthers

While late in the season, this was the first match between Cokeville and the Lady Panthers as a quarantine of Saratoga had prevented them from hosting Cokeville a few weeks prior.

“Cokeville is a very good team and we knew going in it would be a tough game for us. We did not come out strong against them in the 1st quarter, but after that I felt like we played fairly well and at least held steady,” said Bartlett. “I thought we did some good things on defense and offense that last three quarters.”

Sophomore Whitney Bennett led the Lady Panthers against Cokeville as she scored 12 points and had 7 rebounds and 3 steals. Following Bennett was senior Savannah Wells with 10 points, 4 rebounds and 4 steals. Olivia Everett scored 6 points against Cokeville while Sam Fiedor scored 5 points and had 3 rebounds. Tasia Daley followed with 2 points, 4 rebounds and 4 steals and Shelby Knotwell scored 2 points and had 2 rebounds.

The final score was 34-63.

Lady Panthers vs.

Lady Pronghorns

Following their loss to Cokeville, the Lady Panthers traveled to Farson-Eden.

“Farson was a disappointing game for us.  We did not come in as focused as we should have been and we turned the ball over way too much, that ended up costing us the game,” Bartlett said. “The game was actually really close despite us turning the ball over so much.  The girls played hard, we just didn't play that well.”

Bennett once again led the Lady Panthers as she scored 21 points against Farson-Eden and had 11 rebounds, 4 assists and 7 steals. Fiedor followed with 6 points and 4 rebounds while Everett scored 4 points and had 3 rebounds. Wells scored 4 points and Daley scored 2 points and had 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals.

The final score was 37-45.

“We plan to regroup this week and come back strong for this last week of the regular season,” said Bartlett.

Following their duo of losses, the Saratoga Lady Panthers are at No. 3 in the 1A Southwest Conference. They are 6-7 for the season and 2-2 for conference play. The Lady Panthers will have hosted the Encampment Lady Tigers on Tuesday and will be hosted by the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Lady Rattlers (7-6, 2-4) at 5:30 p.m. on February 19.