Lady Panthers secure place in quad

The Saratoga Lady Panthers, if anything, have proven over the last few seasons that they are growing as a team. Two seasons ago, the Lady Panthers bought their ticket to the regional tournament through a pigtail game but, this season, are entering the 1A Southwest Quad in the No. 2 seed.

The regular season for the Lady Panthers, in fact, ended with three conference wins as they faced the Encampment Lady Tigers (3-13, 0-8), the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Lady Rattles (7-8, 2-6) and the Farson-Eden Lady Pronghorns (8-8, 5-3).

Lady Panthers vs. Lady Tigers

Saratoga started off their game against the Lady Tigers with a 3-pointer and kept their lead throughout most of the match. For Heather Bartlett, head coach of the Lady Panthers, she felt that Saratoga wasn't the best game for the Lady Panthers as they were still working to find their stride following their quarantine a few weeks before.

Nevertheless, Saratoga secured their first conference win of the last week. They ended the 1st quarter with a lead of 20-14 and went into the half leading 24-21. When they returned to the court after halftime, Saratoga pushed that lead to 39-22 and ended the game with a 9 point lead.

The final score was 43-34.

Senior Savannah Wells led Saratoga against the Lady Tigers as she scored 21 points and had 4 steals. Sophomore Whitney Bennett followed with 10 points, 12 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 assists. Junior Sam Fiedor scored 7 points and had 6 rebounds and 2 steals.

Lady Panthers vs. Lady Rattlers

Following their Tuesday night win against Encampment, the Lady Panthers ventured to Baggs where they were hosted by the Lady Rattlers. When Saratoga had hosted LSRV earlier in the month, they had dealt a loss and would do the same in Baggs home court.

It was Bennett who led the team this time with 26 points and 18 rebounds and 7 steals. The 18 rebounds by Bennett broke yet another school record. Following Bennett was Wells with 10 points, 2 assists and 2 steals. Sophomore Olivia Everett scored 6 points, including a 3-pointer near the end of the game to secure the win, and had 3 rebounds and 3 steals. Senior Tasia Daley scored 3 points and had 7 rebounds and 4 assists.

"Tasia Daley and Savannah Wells faced guarded their main players and Tasia held her girl to 2 points and Savannah held her girl to 5 points, which speaks really well of their defense," said Bartlett.

The final score was 48-41.

Lady Panthers vs. Lady Pronghorns

When the Lady Panthers had been hosted by Farson-Eden a week before, the Lady Pronghorns had managed to escape Saratoga's claws for a win. With that in mind, Bartlett had her team focus on reducing the amount of turnovers and working against the Lady Pronghorn's defense.

Bennett scored 16 pints and had 16 rebounds and 4 steals. Fiedor followed with 6 points and 8 rebounds. Everett scored 5 points and had 2 steals. It was Everett's final steal that won the game for Saratoga, making two games that the sophomore secured for the Lady Panthers. Sophomore Shelby Knotwell scored 4 points against the Lady Pronghorns and had 4 rebounds and 2 assists and Daley had 7 rebounds.

The final score was 35-34.

Following their three wins, the Saratoga Lady Panthers enter the 1A Southwest Quad in Farson as the No. 2 seed and will face the No. 3 seeded Lady Pronghorns.

The Lady Panthers will face the Lady Pronghorns today at 3 p.m.