'Learning Daily'

Whether it was a second-half comeback by the Encampment Lady Tigers or a struggle to put together all four quarters, what appeared to be a game for the Saratoga Lady Panthers to win became their first conference loss.

“It was a game of two halves,” said Head Coach Logan Wright. “We really came out strong and executed our gameplan. In the end, we are a young team that is growing and learning daily.”

The Lady Panthers started off strong as they won the tip-off against Encampment and sank a three-pointer. For most of the first quarter, Saratoga kept ahead of the Lady Tigers by a handful of points as the Lady Panthers put on both a good offense and a good defense. Players like Maggie Elder and Laenee Barkhurst appeared to have no issue getting inside the paint for layups while Sammie Walker wasn’t afraid to go in for rebounds.

On the defense, the Lady Panthers weren’t content with waiting on the other end of the court for Encampment. Instead, they applied a full-court press on the Lady Tigers which often resulted in successful steals which were translated into more points.

As the first quarter ended, the Lady Panthers led 19-8 over Encampment.

In the second quarter, the rainbow passes which were working for Saratoga began working against them as the Lady Tigers used them for successful turnovers. Standing out, literally, for the Lady Panthers was Cassidy Herring who worked to use her height to rebound. Walker, meanwhile, used her height to her advantage to evade Encampment’s defense.

While it continued to be a strong second quarter for Saratoga, the Lady Tigers were able to close the scoring gap as they put up 10 points compared to just 5 points from the Lady Panthers.

Going into halftime, Saratoga led 24-18 over Encampment.

In the second half, the Lady Panthers further struggled to keep Encampment from scoring. The scoring for the Lady Tigers, however, didn’t come easy as Saratoga worked to put up a defense which played itself out at midcourt with a number of turnovers between both teams.

As the third quarter continued, however, Encampment put up another 10 points while the Lady Panthers were only able to put up 4 points. With just 30 seconds left in the third quarter, the score was tied 28-28.

In the final quarter, the Lady Tigers took the tie game and turned it into a substantial lead over Saratoga.

“We ended up with too many turnovers and in the second half we stopped playing with aggressiveness on defense and rebounding,” said Wright. “These two things turned the tides in Encampment’s favor.”

In the fourth quarter, the only point Saratoga managed to put up on the scoreboard came from the free throw line. The Lady Tigers, meanwhile, put up a total of 13 points to secure the game in their favor.

The final score was 41-29, Encampment.

‘Koya Roberts led us in scoring with 9 points. She had all of these points in the first half. Maggie Elder and Laenee Barkhurst led us in rebounding with 5 each,” said Wright. “I’m thankful for the girl’s efforts and now we know we need to work on putting a full four quarter game together and finish the way we start. We will continue to work on toughness, moving the ball without turning it over, and attacking rebounds.”

Following their loss to the Encampment Lady Tigers, the Saratoga Lady Panthers are sitting at No. 2 in the 1A Southwest with a season record of 5-3 and a conference record of 0-1.

Saratoga will get two opportunities this week to add to their win column for conference games. On January 16, they will host the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Lady Rattlers (5-4, 0-0) at 4:30 p.m. On January 17, they will be hosted by the Fort Washakie Lady Eagles (1-5, 0-1) at 5 p.m.

The Lady Eagles were dealt a 50-point loss, 66-16, by the Lady Tigers on January 10.