RHS boys take to Manila court

RANGELY | Returning to the hardwood at Manila, the Rangely boys basketball team faced some of Utah’s top 1A and 2A talent. The Panthers are under the direction of head coach Kyle Boydstun who is in his 26th year of coaching basketball and his seventh year at Rangely. The Panthers have three returning seniors: Keihlin Myers averaged four points and four rebounds per game as the Panther’s point guard last year; Timothy Scoggins contributed three points and three rebounds off the bench; Ashton Bennett, a returning varsity player, rounds out the senior class and all three have been with the Panthers for all four years. While the Panthers graduated three seniors from last year’s team, they are replaced by nine juniors. 

“Keihlin and Timothy played a lot of varsity minutes last year. We’ll be expecting more from them and relying on their leadership. Many of our juniors played varsity minutes as well and most of them are two- or three-sport athletes. I look for the 2021-22 version of the Panthers to be much quicker and deeper than last year. Our focus is defensive intensity and I like what I’ve seen thus far, both in practice and on the court,” coach Boydstun stated. 

Rangely also has two sophomores and seven freshmen to contribute on the Panthers’ JV team. Colt Allred, in his seventh year of assisting for the Panthers, will direct the JV program. According to coach Boydstun, “Colt knows our program inside and out. He does a fantastic job of building our program and instilling great values in our players. With 21 players participating this year, his contribution to our program cannot be overstated.”

Friday at Manila, the Panthers took on the Rowland Hall-St. Marks Winged Lions, an 11th-ranked 2A team out of Salt Lake City. Rowland proved to be a tough matchup, downing the Panthers 72-40. Coach Boydstun said, “We had our looks offensively, but it was obvious that it was Rowland’s fourth game and our first — we didn’t convert our easy buckets. We turned the ball over too much, but I was pleased with our defensive effort.” Fisher Winder led the Panthers with 16 points, while Scoggins and Kevin Wren both pitched in eight points apiece. 

Also on Friday the Panthers took on a perennially tough Intermountain Christian School team (also from Salt Lake City). The Panthers started and finished strong winning the first and final quarters of the game. ICS found holes in the Panthers defense in the second quarter to prevail 57-51. Coach Boydstun stated, “Our bright spots were both on defense. Marstan Wagner did a fantastic job guarding ICS’s best player in the third quarter and our team defense on our full court press helped us chip back twice from being down double-digits.” Wren and Kenyon Cochrane led the Panther attack with 18 and 15 points, respectively.

Saturday the Panthers took on the Manila Mustangs, Utah’s fourth-ranked 1A team. The Mustang’s defensive pressure proved too much as the Panthers committed 24 turnovers and fell to the Mustangs 60-22. Rangely’s JV team also played two games over the weekend. They played very well in a 49-57 loss to Rowland Hall and got blitzed on Saturday, losing to Manila 21-51.

The Panther’s next contests will be their home tournament, the 2021 Rangely Shootout. The tournament will take place Friday, Dec. 10 and Saturday, Dec. 11 and will feature DeBeque, Dove Creek, Ouray, North Park, Nucla, South Park and Telluride. A total of 18 varsity games and six JV games will be played over two days on three courts. The Rangely boys team will play Ouray on Friday and Telluride and Nucla on Saturday.

Special to the Herald Times