Panthers fall to Cokeville, Farson

The Saratoga Panthers had a rough weekend on the road as they traveled to Cokeville and Farson for what were two more conference losses.

On January 24, Saratoga was dealt a narrow 9-point loss by the Cokeville Panthers. Then, on January 25, the Panthers fell by 12 points to the Farson-Eden Pronghorns.

“We were competitive in both games but ran into scoring droughts that we ultimately couldn’t overcome,” said Head Coach Jason Williams.

Saratoga vs. Cokeville

While Cokeville has been one of the tougher teams in the 1A Southwest Conference, the orange-and-black Panthers haven’t been impossible to beat. As the season goes on, however, they are undefeated in conference play with only two losses total.

For the purple-and-gold Panthers, it served as a good measure of where they are as a team.

“We played with them in the first half and we were down 1 point at halftime,” said Coach Williams. “However, we had trouble scoring in the third quarter and were outscored 7 – 2 in the frame. That was a deficit we couldn’t get over and ended up on the losing end.”

Jace Westring led Saratoga against the hosting Panthers as he scored 15 points and had 3 assists. Griffin Bartlett scored 10 points against Cokeville and Max Jones scored 7 points and had 7 rebounds.

The final score was 51-42, Cokeville.

Saratoga vs. Farson-Eden

After their loss on Friday, the Panthers faced Farson-Eden on Saturday. Another tough team in the conference, Saratoga went into the match prepared for a fight.

“We knew coming into the game that Farson was going to be a big challenge for us match-up wise, but we did a good job defensively on their two all-state posts, limiting both of them under their season averages,” said Coach Williams. “Unfortunately some of their role players stepped up and hit shots we had hoped they wouldn’t and Farson won the game. Once again, scoring points was a struggle for us.”

Westring, again, led Saratoga as he scored 10 points and had 9 rebounds. Bartlett scored 9 points and had 8 rebounds. Hunter Johnston also contributed as he scored 7 points and had 2 assists and 2 steals.

The final score was 48-36, Farson-Eden.

While they were two conference losses, Coach Williams said he felt like they were both learning experiences for the mostly young team. As Saratoga goes back through for rematches with conference rivals, there’s hope to improve.

“We feel like our defense has improved significantly this month, we just need our offense to catch up,” said Coach Williams. “We begin now going through the second half of conference play, and we are hoping to pick up some wins that we didn’t get in the first half.”

Following their two losses, the Saratoga Panthers are now sitting at No. 5 in the 1A Southwest Conference, just above the Fort Washakie Eagles. They are 7-5 for the season and 1-4 for conference play.

The Panthers host Fort Washakie (2-8, 0-5) at 5 p.m. on January 31. They will be on the road again on February 1 as they are hosted by the Wind River Cougars at 1 p.m. in Pavillion.