RANGELY I The Rangely High School boys’ basketball team will wrap up its regular season this week as they play against Soroco tonight, travel to Grand Junction to play Caprock Academy on Friday and then host Little Snake River on Saturday.
The Panther cagers are coming off a big week of basketball as they beat Meeker on Tuesday night by nine.
Coach Kyle Boydstun said, “Meeker played us very tough like we thought they would, so we needed that crazy fourth quarter finish to beat them. In 20 years of coaching, I’ve never had a team pull of something like that.”
The Pantthers were trailing by 37-32 going into the final period, and the Panthers scored an incredible 31 points in the last eight minutes of the game, giving them the 63-54 victory.
The team had four guys in double figures, led by Patrick Scoggins and Kaulan Brady with 15 points each, followed by Kaulan Brady and Kobe Broome with 12 each. Troy Allred, Mikey Shepherd and Devin Ramirez each had two points.
Rangely traveled to Paonia on Friday and they were hoping to have four more quarters like the last one in Meeker. However, Coach Boydstun said, “Paonia shot well, and we were hamstrung by fouls in both halves, so it was difficult to evaluate this game.”
The first half found the Panthers down 39-13 with Rangely losing 70-42 in final tally.
With so many players in foul trouble, the scoring was certainly balanced as Austin Ficken led the way with nine points, Patrick Scoggins had seven, Troy Allred, Brennan Noyes, and Kobe Broome all had six points, Drew Brannan had three, and Mike Shepherd and Kaulan Brady each added two. Troy Allred led the team in rebounds with seven followed by Patrick Scoggins with five.
Rangely is 8-8 overall and 6-5 in the league. This puts them in fourth place in the Western Slope League Mesa Division. This means they will host the Gore Division’s fifth place team, Vail Mountain, on Monday Feb. 22. If they win they will travel to Vail Christian on Tuesday, Feb. 23. The winner will advance to the semi-finals and finals of the District Tournament in Debeque on Friday and Saturday.
The Panther team is an exciting team going into the post season, from last-second shots to 30-point quarters, they have shown they have what it takes to find a way to win.