Panthers win consolation bracket

RANGELY I “It was our first game of the year and you could definitely tell,” Rangely girls’ basketball coach Jimmie Mergelman said of her team’s first round game in the White River Electric Cowboy Shootout.
The lady Panthers played a close game with 4A Palisade, tying the score to go into the final quarter but losing by one point to put Rangely in the consolation bracket, where they won their next two games.
“We did not scrimmage or anything like that prior to Thursday,” Mergelman said. “I don’t think we ever truly ran an offense during the first half. The second half we were much better and settled into what we were doing.”
Rangely may not have had a good first half but they only trailed by one at the end of the first quarter and the same margin at halftime and the Panthers even had the lead in the fourth quarter but couldn’t hold on for the win, losing 42-41.
“I think we played well and had opportunities to win, we just made a few errors down the stretch,” Mergelman said. “The girls did well, especially with only Brittany (Babineaux) having very much varsity experience at all.”
Babineaux was selected to the all-tournament team and proved her worth with a 33-point scoring effort in the second game against Cedaredge.
“We played well this game, did things we needed to do and I thought overall this was a good game for us,” Mergelman said. “We were able to score 69 points and keep our turnovers to 16.”
Quincey Thacker added 18 points and led the team with eight rebounds in the second game. Thacker pulled down 11 rebounds in the first game followed by senior Haeley Enterline with nine rebounds in the first game and five in the second.
The 69-40 win over Cedaredge set up the the consolation championship between the lady Panthers and Vanguard, a charter school from Colorado Springs.
Each year the WREA Cowboy Shootout features a 3-point shooting contest before Saturday’s championship games. This year, junior Bailey Haist of the Vanguard Coursers was the 3-point champ.
Haist opened the consolation championship with a pair of three-pointers, made two more in the game and finished with 30 points but it wasn’t enough to beat the lady Panthers.
The first quarter ended with both teams tied but Thacker gave her team a 25-15 halftime lead, making 10 of her 18 points in the second quarter and finishing the game with 11 rebounds.
“This was a good game for us against a team that we might meet somewhere down the road,” Mergelman said. “We played the best game of the weekend on Saturday. Our defense played well, we ran our offenses and got the shots we were looking for. Overall, I thought we played an all around good game.”
Babineaux also scored 18 in Saturday’s game and had four steals. Enterline scored 16 points, pulled down 15 rebounds and stole the ball five times in the consolation championship. Sophomore Hailee Russell had six points and her classmate Amiee Hogan scored a basket in the fourth quarter.
“The Shootout is a nice way to open the season, especially when it is so close to home,” Mergelman said of the three-day event, before commenting on the competition.
“I thought the competition of the tournament was good and our league teams looked good also,” Mergelman said. “It goes to show our league is going to be tough when Hayden was the champion, Meeker was third and we were the consolation champions for the other side of the bracket.”
The lady Panthers will play in Duchesne, Utah today, starting at 4:30 p.m., with the varsity schedule to start at 6 p.m. Rangely will host the JV Tip Off tournament this Friday and Saturday.