RANGELY | The lady Panthers played Hotchkiss Friday, Feb. 3, winning 70-46.
“We were able to jump out on them quick forcing turnovers and shooting the ball well. We outscored them 21-3 in the first quarter and were able to sustain the lead the rest of the way. It was nice to have good balance on the offensive end with all nine players scoring and four scored in double digits,” said head coach Quinton Kent.
The team leaders in scoring were Katelyn Brown with 16, Katye Allred with 14, Kassidee Brown with 13 and Lindzey Thacker with 10. Thacker also led with 10 rebounds and six assists.
“We went to the line 32 times and made 22. While not the best free throw percentage, it wasn’t bad and it was 22 points from the line, which is more than Hotchkiss shot altogether,” Kent said.
The JV team also won at Hotchkiss by about 20 points.
Saturday the Panthers played Vail Christian and came away with a 66-50 win.
“Again, good balance on the offensive end and decent defense led to another double digit win,” Kent said.
“Vail Christian is a good team who has played the top half of our league very tough and even beat West Grand. They can really disrupt teams with their length and they have a couple of shooters to make it difficult to guard them.”
Vail had three in double figures and another with nine points, but Rangely had four in double figures and eight of Rangely’s nine players scored.
As a team, the lady Panthers made 10 three-pointers, with Kassidee Brown hitting four, followed by Katelyn Brown and Skylar Thacker with three each. Katelyn Brown led in scoring with 18, followed by Lindzey Thacker with 14, Skylar Thacker with 13 and Kassidee Brown with 12.
“I was really pleased with how we passed the ball. Good ball movement kept Vail Christian’s defense off-balance and led to some really good looks at the basket,” Kent said.
The team shot 46 percent from the field and 50 percent from the three-point line and had 24 assists.
“As a coaching staff, we love to see our players passing up good shots for great shots and we saw that a lot on Saturday. It was fun to watch them play so well as a team,” Kent added.
Katelyn Brown led with seven assists, followed by Katye Allred with five and Sidney Shaffer with four.
The JV team also won a close contest, despite playing most of the fourth quarter with only four players. “Those four did a good job of handling the full-court pressure and doing enough to maintain the lead,” Kent said. They won by about seven.