RHS Lady Panthers fall to Front Range Christian

RANGELY I “Had we come out hard and ready to play it might have been different,” Jimmie Mergelman, head coach for the Rangely girls’ basketball team said of the regional game against the Front Range Christian Falcons. “On that day though, they were better than us.”

By bobby [email protected] I “Had we come out hard and ready to play it might have been different,” Jimmie Mergelman, head coach for the Rangely girls’ basketball team said of the regional game against the Front Range Christian Falcons. “On that day though, they were better than us.”The Lady Panthers lost 50-64, in the semifinal round of the Region 4 tournament, held at the University of Denver last weekend, ending their season.The Falcons scored six points before senior Torie Slagle hit a three-pointer to get the Lady Panthers on the board and classmate Victoria Phelan added a basket to pull within one but then turnovers allowed the Falcons to start to pull away. Rangely trailed 9-14 at the end of the first, were down by 12 at halftime before the Falcons put the game away in the third, taking a 21 point lead into the final quarter.Senior Rozilynn Thacker scored seven of her nine points in the fourth quarter and the Lady Panthers outscored the Falcons 22-15 but did not threaten the Falcons.Phelan led all scorers with 15 points, Thacker finished with nine, while senior Marie Morton and sophomore Brittany Babineaux each added eight. Slagle scored six in her final high school game, while sophomore Quincey Thacker and freshman Aimee Hogan each made a basket.Phelan, Slagle, Morton, Rozilynn Thacker, Kelsey Harvey and Rosalise Coombs all ended their high school basketball careers last Friday.“They were a great bunch of girls and they are all going to be missed,” Mergelman said of her seniors. “It was sad they fell short of their goal of going to state but they always played hard.”