This year’s lady Panthers basketball team. | MATT SCOGGINS PHOTO
RANGELY | The Rangely High School girls basketball team will take the floor on Friday at 1 p.m. in the Manila Holiday Tournament. The Rangely basketball program has a record number of girls out this year.
Head coach Jimmie Mergelman boasted about the program’s highest number of players during her second tenure as the head coach at RHS. “It is nice to have a full gym, after last year during COVID-19 we had such a small team. We have three seniors, three juniors, six sophomores and 11 freshmen.” This should play into how fresh the team can remain when down the stretch when league play starts and the teams are playing two to three games per weekend.
This year the lady Panthers will be led by three seniors. Mary Scoggins led the team in 2021 by averaging 12 points and nine rebounds, Adelynn Halcomb averaged 10 points, and Hayley Burr will join the team again, as well. Other key contributors from last year who are back this year are sophomore Annika Cantrell who averaged five points and nine rebounds. Mergelman added, “I will look for her [Cantrell] to do more in the way of controlling the boards with a full year of experience under her belt.” Also sophomore Ryann Mergelman averaged 10 points and five rebounds per game, and Kastyn Dembowski stepped in as a freshman and she contributed immensely to the 2021 program. When asked about Dembowski’s role on the 2021-2022 team, Mergelman explained, “She does a lot of things for us defensively and we are looking for her to step up offensively this year also.”
The lady Panthers will kick off their season in Manila this weekend as they are slated to take on the hosting Manila Mustangs at 1 p.m. and then immediately following, the lady Panthers will take on the Green River Wolves (Green River, Wyoming) at 2:30 p.m. Both of these games are played on Friday, Dec. 3. The lady Panthers will then play the Intermountain Christian School Lions (SLC, Utah) at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 4.
Rangely High School will be hosting a tournament this year at home on Dec. 10-11 and look forward to being able to play at home in front of a full crowd of people.
Panther basketball seniors Adelynn Halcomb, Mary Scoggins and Hayley Burr.
MATT SCOGGINS PHOTO
Special to the Herald Times
