Rangely I The Rangely High School girls’ basketball team had a barn burner on Friay night to restart their season after the holiday break.
The girls played Plateau Valley, and Coach Quinton Kent said, “I felt like our defense was solid for the most part. We held them to 34 points, but their defense was tough as well. It was a good matchup.”
The teams came out with a good defensive strategy as Rangely trailed by only one at the end of the first quarter, 10-9.
The team chipped away and tied the game at half time behind strong play by Katelyn Brown and Lindzey Thacker.
The third quarter found the Panthers struggling offensively, Kent said.
“We didn’t execute like we hoped to on the offensive end,” he said, adding that “we rarely had a clean look at the basket and their length really bothered us.”
The team only scored two points but managed to hold Plateau Valley to six.
The girls fought back and outscored the Cowboys by a single point in the final eight minutes, but it wasn’t enough as they fell 34-31 in the end.
The team played outstanding team defense and hopes to continue the intensity and have it spark their offense as the season continues, Kent said.
On Saturday night the team faced Cedaredge, which, Kent said, “is a balanced team with a lot of weapons.” He also said, “They play solid defense, shoot the ball well and make it difficult to focus on one or two players.”
The Panthers came out in the first quarter and hung with the Bruins with a score of 14-8. However, continued pressure wore the Panthers down and they went into the half, trailing 30-13.
The second half was extremely close, but the deficit was too much to overcome for the Panthers. Rangely was within a point of Cedaredge’s scoring in each of the final quarters, showing that the team has what it takes to be competitive.
They girls will play Paonia on Friday night and hope to find the combination of their outstanding defense with offensive production.
