‘Jekyll and Hyde’ Panthers win two, lose one on week

RANGELY I Panther coach Mark Skelton said he’s starting to feel like a broken record.
Skelton has been preaching the same message to his players all season: For them to be successful requires giving maximum effort.
And he’s sticking to it.
“It will always come back to how much heart these kids have and how much they want to work,” Skelton said.
The Panthers gave their best effort at times last week … and at times they didn’t.
“We continued our Jekyll and Hyde,” Skelton said.
Despite any inconsistencies, Rangely finished 2-1 for the week — beating Moffat County’s junior varsity 69-66 on Jan. 19, whipping up on North Park 77-37 last Friday, and then losing a close one to West Grand 54-50 last Saturday.
Against Moffat County’s JV, Rangely led 40-31 at halftime, before being outscored 20-10 in the third period.
“It wasn’t pretty, but we were savvy enough to hang on,” Skelton said.
Last Friday against North Park, the Panthers led from start to finish, jumping out to a big 30-7 first-quarter lead.
Leading scorer Patrick Phelan had 22 points in about two quarters of playing time, while Ethan Peacock contributed 12 points and eight rebounds, and Kody Denny also chipped in with 12 points.
“Everybody got to play,” Skelton said of the North Park game. “Basically, I let the JV finish up the game.”
Rangely tried to make it 3-0 for the week, but came up short last Saturday against West Grand, despite leading at halftime 28-21.
“They picked up their intensity (in the second half), and we kind of slacked off,” Skelton said. “We missed a lot of early shots … and that really came back to bite us.”
Phelan scored 20 points against West Grand, and Adam Dahl added 10.
The Panthers, 7-6 overall and 3-1 in the league, play two road games this season week: at Vail Christian on Friday and at Hayden on Saturday.