Panthers Wrangle 2-1 In Shoshoni

In their last preseason tournament before the holiday break, the Saratoga Panthers dealt two losses and took one of their own while at the Wrangler Invite on December 19 and 20.

“The Wrangler Invite is always a great tournament for us, we get strong competition and see some other teams in the state, including a lot of teams in the Northwest conference and our own conference,” said Head Coach Jason Williams. “Overall it was a good weekend and we got to see some things we were good at, but also some areas we need to work on and get cleaned up before conference play begins in January.”

Saratoga vs. Shoshoni

The first team the Panthers faced on the hardwood were the 2A Shoshoni Wranglers.

“Shoshoni is improved from the last couple of years and they came out with an aggressive defense and a press that we struggled against,” said J. Williams. “It was a good game for us as far as a learning experience for us.  We were able to play with them for 2 quarters but we need to be able to put 4 quarters together in order to compete with the higher level teams.”

Ultimately, Saratoga was dealt a 20-point loss as they fell 60-40 in favor of the Wranglers.

Jace Westring led the team against Shoshoni with 11 points and 5 steals. Hazen Williams followed with 10 points while Griffin Bartlett had 5 steals. Hunter Johnston and Newt Williams contributed to the scoring with 7 rebounds and 6 rebounds, respectively.

Saratoga vs. Riverside

“Friday we got to play two teams from the Northwest Conference, Riverside and Meeteetse.  Both of these teams have long, athletic players and we were glad to get out with a couple of wins,” said J. Williams. “Riverside might have been our best team effort of the season, as we had our best assist to field goal ratio.”

The Riverside Rebels didn’t have a great weekend as they lost all three games during the Wrangler Invite. Their first game was against the Panthers with a 30-point loss, 65-35 in favor of Saratoga. The Rebels were also downed by the Riverton Wolverine Sophomores and Shoshoni.

1. WIlliams led the team against Riverside with a double-double of 22 points and 10 rebounds. Burris Berger also had a double-double with 19 points and 14 rebounds. Westring also contributed to the win with 8 points and 7 rebounds.

Saratoga vs. Meeteetse

On Friday afternoon, the Panthers faced the Meeteetse Longhorns for what was one of the closer games for Saratoga. While Shoshoni had dealt a 20-points loss to the Panthers, who in turn dealt a 30-point loss to Riverside, just 10 points made the difference in this game.

The Longhorns, like the Rebels, didn’t have a great weekend as they went 0-3 for the entire tournament. The final score against the Panthers was 49-39 in favor of Saratoga.

1. Williams led the team in scoring with 20 points and 6 rebounds. Westring followed with 12 points. Bartlett had 8 rebounds and 7 steals while Berger scored 7 points and had 7 rebounds.

With conference play awaiting them after the holidays, the Saratoga Panthers are sitting at a season record of 6-1.

The Panthers will face the Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Miner junior varsity team at 5 p.m. in Hanna on January 7. Saratoga’s first conference game will be against their Valley and conference rivals, the Encampment Tigers, at noon on January 11th in Encampment.