Panthers advance to district tourney

RANGELY | The Paonia Eagles locked up the league title against Rangely on Friday, Feb. 17, finishing 12-0 in league play. Rangely’s boys put up a good fight in the first half—they trailed 4-14 in the first quarter— but the Panthers roared back in the second quarter outscoring the Eagles 21-16. Trailing only 25-30 at half-time the Panthers offense became stagnant while Paonia’s Dagan Rienks rattled off 20 of his 24 points in the second half. Rangely’s struggle on both ends of the floor in the second half led to a 36-66 loss to the league champions. Patrick Scoggins, Austin Ficken and Kobe Broome led the charge in scoring with 10, eight and eight points, respectively.

Rangely finished its season at 6-6 in league play and 9-11 overall. The Panthers earned the eighth seed and the right to host ninth-seeded Soroco on Feb. 20.
Rangely hosted the Soroco Rams in the district playoff game on Monday, Feb. 20. The much-improved Rams kept things interesting in the first half as the Panthers struggled to score—the scoreboard read 24-24 at half-time. In the third quarter the Panthers pushed the pace and found a way to “remove the lid from the basket” as they outscored the Rams 29-6. The Panthers won 65-45 as Austin Ficken led the scoring attack with 17 points. Kobe Broome and Devin Ramirez put up 15 points and Patrick Scoggins pitched in 14 points. The Panthers have advanced to the district quarterfinals on Feb. 22, where the Paonia Eagles will host. The winner of each quarterfinal game advances to the district semifinals and finals at DeBeque High School on Friday and Saturday.