Rangely Panthers beat West Grand

RANGELY I The Rangely Panthers boys’ basketball team defeated the West Grand Mustangs from Kremmling 53-49 at home Friday, and, this Friday, the Panthers will host Plateau Valley then travel to Debeque on Saturday.
“Things started off really well,” head coach Eric Hejl said of the game against the Mustangs. “We were playing good aggressive defense and our bigs were doing good work inside.”
The Panthers jumped out to a 22-11 lead after the first quarter and led 31-23 at halftime.
“We got in a bit of foul trouble in the second quarter, but Layne (Mecham) and the other guys off the bench were able to give us some quality minutes and keep us at a decent lead before halftime.”
The Panthers were outscored in the third quarter, 7-4, and 19-18 in the fourth, but they still came away with the win.
“We were a little sluggish coming out after halftime and that gave West Grand a chance to hang around, which is definitely a habit we need to break,” Hejl said.
“When you let capable teams like West Grand hang around, that’s where you can get yourself into trouble. Fortunately, we were able to overcome some late-game mental errors and still get the win, and that’s what really matters.”
Colt Allred led the Panthers in scoring with 12 points and Andrew Morton added 11. Senior Cameron Enterline recorded his first double-double (at least 10 points and 10 rebounds)of the season, finishing with 10 points, and he led the team with 10 rebounds. Connor Phelan scored eight points, Kaulan Brady had seven and Mecham finished with five.
“If we want to achieve our goal of winning a league championship, then we have to get better,” Hejl said. “This weekend we host Plateau Valley and then travel to DeBeque,so, hopefully, we will use these next few games to get some fine-tuning done before we really get to the meat of our league schedule.”