Lady Panthers varsity team wins 70-43 against Plateau Valley

RANGELY | Rangely High School hosted Plateau Valley in a non-league game on Friday. The JV girls started the night in an exciting game in which not one, but two, extra overtimes were needed to decide the victor. Unfortunately, Rangely was not able to secure the win and lost by three points in the second overtime.
The varsity rebounded from a slow start and took care of business. At the end of the first quarter the lady Panthers were up 13-12. By the second quarter they came alive. Kassidee Brown came out and hit two three-pointers on consecutive offensive possessions and Katelyn Brown added another one to put the score at 22-12 just 1 minute, 30 seconds into the second quarter. The Lady Panthers were able to tack on a couple of layups caused by great defensive deflections and transitions and found themselves up 34-21 heading into halftime. Senior Halie Elam led the offensive charge in the second half by scoring all of her 13 points in the third and fourth quarters. Elam was able to connect on consecutive three-point shots to open the third quarter and later added on a third.
“Elam is known for her great defense and savviness on the court so 13 points out of her is a great bonus for the Panthers,” explained head coach Jimmie Mergelman. “We played well the second half and received a lot of offensive power from the people we needed to be able to run away with a game like we did.” The Lady Panthers were able to take home a 70-43 final score. Overall, Katelyn Brown finished with 21 points, Skylar Thacker with 16, Halie Elam with 13, Kassidee Brown with 10, Sarah Conner with eight and Marlena Miller with two. This weekend they travel to Manila, Utah, for the Manila Holiday Classic. The lady Panthers were able to bring home the first place trophy from the tournament last year and are hungry to do this again. The lady Panthers will play Rowland Hall High School (Salt Lake City) first on Friday, Dec. 15 at 5:30 p.m. and the Lady Panther JV will also play Rowland Hall’s JV at 7 p.m. On Saturday the lady Panthers are slated to play Intermountain Christian School (Salt Lake City) at 3:30 p.m. while the lady Panthers JV will play Manila High School’s JV team at 2 p.m. on Saturday.