Rangely girls get rematch with Altamont

RANGELY I After losing to Altamont in the third-place game at last weekend’s Meeker Shootout, the Lady Panthers will get another crack at the Utah team.
Rangely will play at Altamont tonight. The Lady Panthers are looking forward to the rematch.
“I think we should’ve won,” coach Jimmie Mergelman said of Rangely’s game against Altamont last Saturday at the Shootout. “We were up by five at halftime, but we went away from what was working for us.”
The Lady Panthers lost the third-place game to Altamont 47-32 to go 1-2 in the Shootout and finish in fourth place. Rangely’s Audrey Hogan was the tournament MVP. She scored 29 points in the Lady Panthers’ first-round victory over Middle Park 54-38.
Rangely lost its second game last Friday to Grand Valley 43-33.
“We played a real good second half (against Grand Valley),” Mergelman said. “Then on Saturday, we played a great first half. So, if we could’ve put together a complete 32 minutes, we should have had two more wins. Sometimes we’ve had trouble with that, even last year.”
Despite the 1-2 start, Mergelman doesn’t put much stock in records at this point in the season.
“I don’t look too much at records this early in the season,” the Rangely coach said. “It’s basically practice and trying to get better.”
Hogan led Rangely in scoring again in the game versus Altamont with 10 points, while Dakota Kenney added six. Against Grand Valley, Hogan and Kenney, along with Brittany Babineaux, all scored seven points each. Rozilynn Thacker added nine in the tournament-opening game against Middle Park.
Of Hogan’s MVP performance, Mergelman said, “She does a great job. I expect her to lead us. But it would be nice to be more balanced. Then they’d have to shut down the whole team, not just one or two people.”