Panthers take tough losses heading into postseason

For their final games of the regular season, the Saratoga Panthers hosted two conference foes and were dealt two tough conference losses. On Thursday night, Saratoga hosted the Farson-Eden Pronghorns and hosted the Cokeville Panthers on Friday.

Saratoga vs. Farson-Eden

The last time the Saratoga Panthers faced the Farson-Eden Pronghorns, it turned into a hard-hitting battle which went into overtime. In that game, the Pronghorns dominated almost the entire four quarters until the Panthers were able to catch up.

As a result Saratoga squeaked by, 67-66, in an overtime win thriller. It was a sour taste that stayed with Rick Mittchelson, head coach of the Farson-Eden Pronghorns, and his team for the last five weeks.

Thursday night’s game was one of redemption for the Pronghorns as they outplayed and outscored the Panthers, 72-46. Mitchelson said he had his players ready for this game and they had learned an important lesson against Saratoga: when you have a big lead, you don’t give it up.

“We took that loss against Saratoga with a grain of salt,” Mitchelson said. “We were up quite a bit at home and Saratoga made a valiant comeback and sent it into overtime and they beat us. It was a good lesson that we learned on what it will take to play a full four quarters of basketball”.

Mitchelson said what made the difference in their rematch against Saratoga was that the Pronghorns played much better defense this time. He said he reminded his team that defense must step in and take control of the game.

“Without a doubt, our defense made the difference in getting this win, “ Mitchleson said. “The important lesson our boys learned is that you can not go into halftime with a lead and call it done. If you don’t play a full-four-quarters you will not win the game.”

The Pronghorns were led by junior Kaison Macy and senior Aden Nesse who both had outstanding performances on offense and defense. Macy said the loss to Saratoga on their court five weeks earlier was a valuable lesson and it taught them to play even harder. He said it was about changing their attitude.

“I think our attitudes had something to do with that loss to Saratoga,” Macy said. “We came out flat in the second half against Saratoga and we had a great first half and we came out thinking that we were just going to win no matter what. That loss humbled us because it pushed us to work harder at practice and show up to play.”

Wesse said the loss to Saratoga helped make his team work harder and play tougher. He said he agreed with Macy the change of attitude was what made his team play even better than they did five weeks ago.

“We just had better attitudes tonight than we did last time,” Wesse said. “We work together as a team much better and moving the ball around and not forcing shots that we usually don’t make and making better decisions the entire game”.

Wesse said the team’s defense steps up when needed. He said the major change was putting the ball in the right direction.

In the 1st quarter, both teams turned it into a slugfest. With 3:00 on the clock, the Pronghorns took a 12-5 lead. Then the Panthers fought back and reduced the deficit to 12-7 with Farson-Eden in the lead. The Pronghorns scored an additional 7 points in the final minutes of the quarter.

Farson-Eden took a 19-7 lead at the end of the 1st quarter.

Going into the 2nd quarter the Pronghorns scored 5 points within the first few seconds. With 7:23 on the clock, the Panthers scored 2 points and the score was now 24-9 in favor of Farson-Eden. Ten seconds later the Panthers scored again to turn the lead into 24-11.

As the clock wound down to 5:28, the Pronghorns scored another 2 points, the score was now 26-15, Farson Eden. The Panthers battled back, however, the Pronghorns took control of the entire 2nd quarter. Farson-Eden took a 40-26 lead at halftime.

In the 3rd quarter, Farson-Eden made it clear that they would not let Saratoga off the hook.

The Panthers held the Pronghorns scoreless until 6:47 on the clock and Farson-Eden finally scored and their lead was now 42-26. With under six minutes on the clock, the Pronghorns were able to score 4 points and their lead changed to 46-26

At 5:16 on the clock, Panther Snowden Williams went to the free throw line and only made 1 point but Saratoga grabbed the rebound and the score was now 46-29. With 4:15 on the clock, the Pronghorns would score again and increase their lead to 48-29. Both teams battled it out within less than three minutes. Farson-Eden scored 12 points in the final minutes of the quarter and Saratoga scored 10 points. At the end of the 3rd quarter, the score was 60-39 in favor of Farson-Eden.

Going into the 4th quarter, the Pronghorns scored quickly to take the lead 62-39. With 7:06 on the clock, Saratoga’s Williams went to the free throw line and made only 1 point. The score was now 62-40 in favor of Farson-Eden.

In under six minutes, the Pronghorns scored 5 points and the Panthers scored 4 points. With 5:10 on the clock Saratoga’s Finn Rolseth scored 2 points and at that point the score was 67-46. With under a minute left, Farson-Eden scored another 4 points and the game was over.

The Pronghorns took a 72-46 victory over the Panthers.

Jason Williams, head coach of the Saratoga Panthers, said his team just came out flat but tried to make an effort but they had no answers to stop Farson-Eden.

“We came out flat but our guys picked it up in the second half, “ Williams said. “We just could not get in a rhythm when we needed to. The team’s energy just was not there tonight and Farson-Eden outplayed us.”

Williams said playing three games in four days should not be an excuse for not playing better basketball. He said that his players must step up, especially facing Cokeville.

“If yesterday’s game burned my guys out then they need to toughen up,” Williams said. “Next weekend we have three or four games in three days. The game against North Park may have burned my guys out. It just means we need to toughen up because the regionals are not going to be easy and you play a lot more games in fewer days.”

Saratoga vs. Cokeville

Friday night was a battle of the Panthers at the Saratoga Panthers den.

The last time Cokeville faced Saratoga, it was on their home court and they took a 76-60 win ending the Saratoga Panthers’s eight-game unbeaten streak. The loss was a wake-up call for Saratoga which would face the Orange Panthers again.

This time the Saratoga Panthers were able to give Cokeville a better fight In the end, the Panthers had no answers to stop Jack Dayton and Andrew Jackman as Cokeville took off with an 86-77 victory over Saratoga.

Harold Hatch, head coach of the Cokeville Panthers, said he expected Saratoga to play a lot better than they did last time. He said it is never easy to get a win at the Saratoga Panthers Den and he was proud of his boys for that accomplishment.

“We know at this gym these wins are hard to come by,” Hatch said. “Coach Williams coaches well and he always has his team prepared. We did not expect to win by double digits. We are grateful that we got the victory and it’s not the last time we will see them. We are looking forward to meeting them again at the playoffs,

Hatch said Saratoga is one of the best offensives they have faced all year. He said they play well at all angles of the court and they know how to shoot the ball.

“They are as good of an offensive team as we played this year,” Hatch said. “They can all shoot and spread you out. Fisher Williams and Finn Rolseth have experience and they are a dangerous combination and those two can line it up with the best of them.”

Both Dayton and Jackman knew Saratoga was going to give their team a fight and were reminded by their coaches not to take them lightly.

“This gym is tough to play at,” Dayton said. “Both Rosleth and Williams can shoot the ball. The entire Saratoga team can shoot well so we had to play our best defense. I give credit to Coach Hatch. He got us prepared to face those guys. This is a tough environment to play in and Saratoga is a good team. ”

Jackman said he knew Saratoga would not forget the last time they faced each other. Jackman also said he was proud of the way his team played although he believes there is some improvement that needs to be made especially when playing against a tough competitor like Saratoga.

“At times we played well and at times we played badly but we overcame the adversity,” Jackman said. “Saratoga played well tonight. This is a tough conference and I am just glad we were able to get the win”.

At the beginning of the 1st quarter, both teams scored 3 points, turning it into a battle. For the next several minutes, Saratoga remained tied with the Panthers. Then, with 5:59 on the clock, Cokeville pushed ahead with a 10-5 lead. As the hosting Panthers worked to keep the score close, Cokeville continued to push ahead and maintained a slim lead over Saratoga.

With under two minutes left, the visiting Panthers scored 9 points while holding Saratoga scoreless. The 1st quarter ended 25-12, Cokeville.

Going into the 2nd quarter, Saratoga came back to fight. The hosting Panthers were down 30-17 with 6:35 on the clock. With 6:02 on the clock, Saratoga’s Snowdon scored 2 points and made an extra 1 point at the free throw line. At that point, the score was 30-20 in favor of Cokeville. With 5:25 on the clock, Saratoga would make a 2-point shot and the score is now 30-22 in favor of Cokeville.

With 4:49 on the clock, the visiting Panthers heard Saratoga knocking at the door as they scored 2 points to turn the score into 30-24 in favor of Cokeville. With under four minutes left, both teams scored back and forth. Cokeville scored 11 points and Saratoga scored 14 points. At that point, the score was 41-38 with less than one minute on the clock. The visiting Panthers would get 3 points down to the final second with the score 44-38. Then with 2.6 seconds on the clock, Saratoga’s Jace Westring would inbound to S. Williams, who scored 2 points right before the buzzer hit. The score was now 44-40 Cokeville taking the lead at half time.

Going into the 3rd quarter, with less than seven minutes on the clock Cokeville took a 46-40 lead on a 2-point shot. Saratoga answered back with a 3-point shot with the score now 46-43 in favor of Cokeville. With under six minutes, both teams fired shots. Saratoga was keeping pace with Cokeville and with 5:02 on the clock, the visiting Panthers were still in the lead with the score 54-49. Saratoga called a time-out with 4:15 on the clock.

Then with 4:13 on the clock Saratoga’s Rolseth went to the free throw line and made only 1 point. The score was now 56-50 in favor of Cokeville. Then Saratoga’s H. Williams would score with 3:36 on the clock and Cokeville felt Saratoga creeping up on them with the score of 56-52 in favor of the visiting Panthers.

At 2:49 on the clock, the visiting Panthers scored a 3-point shot to make the lead 59-55. With 2:31 on the clock, Saratoga’s Rolseth made a 2-point shot and was fouled. Rolseth went to the free-throw line and made 1 point. The score was 59-58 in favor of Cokeville.

With 2:00 on the clock, Saratoga took the lead for the first time with the score 60-59. But Cokeville would strike back and regain the lead 61-60 with 1:42 on the clock. With under one minute on the clock, Cokeville would score again to make it 63-61 in their favor.

Saratoga struck again with 50 seconds on the clock, hitting a 3-point basket and the game was tied 63-63. Cokeville hit another 3 points in under 30 seconds and the score was now 66-65. In the final seconds, Cokeville scored again and at the end of the 3rd quarter, the score was 68-65 in favor of Cokeville.

In the 4th quarter with 7:04 on the clock, the visiting Panthers hit a 3-point shot to make the score 71-65 in their favor. Both teams went into a heated battle. With less than seven minutes remaining, Cokeville scored 8 points, and Saratoga 8 points, and with 3:07 on the clock the score was 79-73 in favor of the visiting Panthers.

Saratoga’s Rolseth went to the free throw line at 3:00 on the clock but only scored 1 point and the score was now 79-74 in favor of Cokeville. With less than two minutes the Orange Panthers would score again on a 2-point shot at the net and the score was now 81-74 in favor of Cokeville.

Then with 48.1 seconds on the clock, Cokeville scores again with the score 83-74.

The visiting Panthers were called on a traveling violation with 36.4 on the clock. However, time was running out and Saratoga could not pull it off. Cokeville captured a 86-77 win over Saratoga.

Coach Williams said now that the regular season is over, it is crunch time.

“I have talked with my guys a lot that we have to get better,” Williams said. “Tonight we did a much better job against Cokeville than we did against Farson-Eden. We really have improved and that is all I can ask from them because Cokeville is not an easy team.”

Williams said Dayton was the main factor for Cokeville. He said that his defense played their best against but could stop his shots when they needed to.

“Dayton is a great player and probably the fastest and quickest player in the entire 1A Southwest Conference for a guard,” Williams said. “Our defense was good, we just need to clean up some of the rebounding and improve on that. So overall our defense played well even though Cokeville scored a lot of points. It was just one of those games that was up and down so fast.”

The Saratoga Panthers will enter the 1A West Regional Tournament as the No. 3 team from the Southwest and will face the No. 2 team from the Northwest at 2:20 p.m. on February 22 in Lander.