RANGELY I The month of February has proved to be a month of ups and downs so far for the Rangely lady Panthers basketball team. The girls started the month by upsetting Hotchkiss but then fell to Meeker. On Friday, Feb. 14 the Lady Panthers played host to the North Park Wildcats. The lady Panthers came out firing on all cylinders against the Wildcats. Adelynn Halcomb led the first-quarter charge against the Wildcats with nine points followed by Mary Scoggins with four and Hannah Wilkie and Kacie Lapp each added two points.
Opening up the second quarter, the lady Panthers held a solid 10-point lead over the Wildcats 17-7. Always looking to improve on the court, the Panthers scored 19 points in the second quarter while only giving up three points to the Wildcats. Wilkie led the scoring charge for the Panthers with six points, Kacie Lapp scored three followed by Scoggins, Shauna Lapp, Halcomb, Susan Gillard, Kyrah Phelps all scoring two points in the quarter. At halftime the Panthers took a 36-10 point lead into the locker room.
The third quarter proved to be the Panthers Achilles’ heel as they only scored nine points while giving up eight. Wilkie continued to crash the offensive boards and score for the Panthers as she led all third quarter scorers with five points with Kacie Lapp and Scoggins scoring the remaining four points of the quarter.
Heading into the fourth quarter the Panthers looked to be in cruise control to secure another Western Slope League victory. The Panthers scored 15 more points and only allowed 11 points to the Wildcats, ending the game victorious with a score of 60-29. The 60 points were the highest scoring output by the lady Panthers in the 2019-2020 season. Wilkie led the Panthers to their highest-scoring game of the season with 19 points. Next was Halcomb with 11 points, Scoggins with 10, Kacie Lapp with nine, Kyrah Phelps with six, Shauna Lapp with three and Susan Gillard with two points. The win pushed the Panthers to 12-5 overall and 5-4 in the Western Slope League. Rangely stayed put in sixth place overall in the league.
Saturday, Feb. 15, the Panthers traveled to Paonia to take on the Screaming Eagles. The Panthers were not able to overcome the fast physical play of the Eagles and the Eagles came out victorious with a score of 41-22. Wilkie and Zoey Peck both scored six points. Halcomb added five points with Kacie Lapp adding two and Mary Scoggins with one completing the box score for the game.
With the loss the Panthers fell into a tie with Paonia for sixth place in the Western Slope League.
The Panthers will host the DeBeque Dragons on Friday, Feb. 21 to close out the regular season. This game is crucial to the Panthers and where they will fall into place with the Western Slope District tournament the following week.
