Lady Panthers slip past Encampment

The Saratoga Lady Panthers are sitting in the No. 3 spot of the 1A Southwest Conference as the season begins to draw to a close. On Saturday, Saratoga was hosted by the Encampment Lady Tigers for a tight win against their Valley and conference rivals.

"It was a very competitive, hard fought game that went down to the wire," said Head Coach Heather Bartlett. "There were multiple lead changes throughout the game and I don't think either team ever led by more than 4 at any point in the game."

Even in a close game, somebody has to win and in the final minutes, it went the way of the Lady Panthers. With little time left, a successful basket and a foul from the Lady Tigers worked in Saratoga's favor.

"It came down to the wire and we were able to get an 'And One' without about a minute left to put us up by 1 (point), then we were able to run the clock down and make one more free throw to win," Bartlett said. "Overall, I felt like the girls played well and they played really hard."

Despite the hard work from the Lady Panthers, some things just didn't go well for Saratoga when it came to the stat book. When it came to their shooting percentage, Bartlett found the girls lacking as they went 0 for 9 from the 3 point line and were lower in both free throws and shooting from their average.

"The exception to this on our team is Allie Condict, who came up big with 9 points for us and had some key shots from the outside she made for us," said Bartlett. "Whitney Bennett didn't have as big of a scoring game as she usually does, with 12 points, but she had a very impressive 15 rebounds with 8 assists and 8 steals which is an outstanding game overall."

Along with scoring 9 points, Condict had 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals. Olivia Everett scored 8 points and had 3 rebounds and 2 steals and was followed by Rhiwan Williams with 5 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals. Madie Tesihman scored 1 point and had 3 rebounds and 4 steals and Sam Fiedor scored 2 points and had 4 rebounds and 1 steal.

"I told the girls that sometimes you just have games where your shot is off, but they controlled what they could control and played well in other areas of the game with solid defense and rebounding," Bartlett said. "It was a great win for us."

The final score was 37-35, Saratoga.

Following their win against the Encampment Lady Tigers, the Saratoga Lady Panthers are 9-4 for the season and 3-2 in conference play. With just a few weeks left before the 1A West Regional Tournament, Saratoga's schedule is filled with conference games.

Saratoga will be hosted by the Farson-Eden Lady Pronghorns at 4 p.m. on February 11 and by the Cokeville Lady Panthers at noon on February 12. The Lady Panthers will host the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Lady Rattlers at 4 p.m. on February 18 for their final home game.