PHS wins in a walk but then is blown out twice during opening weekend

It was the best of games, it was the worst of games.

The Powell High School boys basketball team won one of three contests it played in the East/West Classic in Buffalo over the weekend, dominating its first opponent before being on the wrong end of a pair of blowouts. The Panthers topped Newcastle 70-43 Friday afternoon, and then fell 77-53 to Wheatland in an early contest Saturday morning before wrapping up the two-day event by being handled 78-63 by Rawlins.

“Rawlins and Wheatland are good teams,” head coach Chase Kistler said Sunday. “I looked at this weekend as trying to get things together and start to develop as a team.”

Kistler unveiled a starting lineup based on speed and outside shooting, with seniors Kalei Smith, Carter Baxter, Zach Heny and Matt Sweet joined by junior Jake Gallagher. The first four played on last season’s squad, which claimed fourth place at state, with Smith and Baxter leading the team in scoring and Heny and Sweet providing long-range marksmanship and hustle.

Gallagher sat out last year but is being counted on to provide rebounding and defense inside. He scored 24 points and pulled down 19 boards during the three-game set.

“He played real well,” Kistler said. “We’ve got some shoes to fill from last year. Jake is a big man. We were short a big man, anyways. It was kind of a clear-cut case with Jake.”

Sweet won a close battle with other players for the starting spot and responded with 18 points, four assists and four steals during the classic.

“We went with experience to start out this season,” Kistler said. “As I told Matt Sweet, it’s his position to lose.”

Powell 70, Newcastle 43

Against Newcastle, Sweet hit the first hoop of the season, Baxter followed with a 3-pointer and Smith blocked a shot and scored in transition to give PHS a 7-0 lead.

That set the tone for the whole game, as Powell hit from the outside and scored on fast breaks off a ball-hawking defense.

Heny hit from the outside and inside as PHS held a 19-7 edge after one period. Heny and Sweet stayed hot in the second stanza, and when Sweet nailed a 3-pointer just before the break, the Panthers went into the locker room with a 40-19 cushion.

They extended the lead to 55-26 at the end of the third period and ended up with the 27-point win.

Heny paced the Panthers with 19 points, followed by 16 from Smith and 11 each from Sweet and Baxter.

“Newcastle is building, they are a young team,” Kistler said. “We ran the ball well, got easy looks.”

Wheatland 77, Powell 53

The Panthers faced the Wheatland Bulldogs in a breakfast battle, with the tipoff shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday.

In addition to the early start, PHS was without Baxter, who was not in Buffalo on Saturday. Heny opened the scoring with a 3-pointer, but the Panthers never led again. They struggled to get off shots and were quickly behind 14-4.

Smith was triple-teamed at times as the Bulldogs sought to control Powell’s primary offensive weapon.

Kendrick Jackson had seven early points for Wheatland, which built a 20-6 edge at the end of the first period. PHS rallied to within eight late in the second period but the wheels came off in the third quarter, as the Bulldogs outscored the Panthers 21-5 and turned the contest into a runaway, leading 59-32 after three.

Powell out-scored Wheatland 21-18 in a fast-paced fourth quarter but ended up on the short end of a 77-53 finale. Heny once again paced the Panthers with 14 points; Smith, who scored all his points in the second quarter, had 12, as did Gallagher.

Smith drew his second technical foul in two games; the first, on Friday, was for hanging on the rim. On Saturday morning, he drew a T for talking back to an official.

Kistler said the referee thought Smith “cussed,” but the coaching staff is convinced he did not and the referee later said that may have been the case. But the coach said he has told his senior star he is not to argue or get into a conflict with the referees. Smith was benched for the majority of the second half after the incident.

All in all, the morning game was a challenge. It was “a little bit different experience for them,” Kistler said. “It’s good experience for them. Puts them in a tougher setting.”

He said the Panthers had no one to blame but themselves for the thumping they absorbed.

“We dug ourselves holes. We missed layups and short jumpers,” Kistler said. “We just weren’t connecting earlier and were playing from behind.”

Baxter skipped Saturday’s games to attend the Blue-Grey All-American Bowl, a high school all-star game held in Dallas on Saturday. His close friend Riley Stringer played in the contest.

Kistler said while Baxter’s absence “hurt us as a team,” he was “glad he supported a friend. It was a decision he had to make.”

He said he told the other players that meant they had a chance to show what they could do on the court with extended minutes.

“I presented it as an opportunity for other guys on the team: Step up and show us what you got,” Kistler said.

Rawlins 78, Powell 63

PHS wrapped up the opening weekend of play with a resounding loss to the Rawlins Outlaws.

It was no contest from the start, as Powell struggled to get off shots while Rawlins scored seemingly at will, building a 24-7 lead at the end of the first period. Kistler cleared the bench in an attempt to shake things up, but the Outlaws could not be corralled.

Jalen Krening scored 15 for Rawlins in the opening period. T.J. Abraham “paced” Powell with two points during the quarter.

The Panthers closed the gap a bit in the second stanza, coming within 11 points at 31-20 as Gallagher scored on a feed from Smith, then sliced it to 33-23 when Smith hit a 3-pointer and within nine at 37-28 on yet another Smith triple.

But PHS, which has vowed to step it up on defense this year after allowing the most points in 3A last season, was unable to stop the Outlaws and was plagued by turnovers as well — it committed 13 in the opening two quarters — as it went into the break trailing 45-31.

Krening scored 28 points in the first half and ended the game with 35.

“He’s a very talented player,” Kistler said. “He was on fire.”

Krening also passes well if he is doubled, the coach said.

The Outlaws stretched the lead to 20 points midway through the third quarter, and after that it was a matter of winding down the clock as Powell never closed to within striking distance. Smith paced the Panthers with 35 points, giving him 63 for the weekend. Heny added nine, bringing his total to 44 for the three games.

“It was a good learning experience, to be honest,” Kistler said. “Every day we have to be improving some aspect of our game. We’ve got to have good practice opportunity show what you’re capable of, not to hold anything back.

“We haven’t really seen what this team is capable of doing,” he said. “We’ve got a ways to go to reach our full potential.”

Notes: Powell entered the weekend ranked second in 3A hoops by WyoPreps. Wheatland and Rawlins were tied for third; defending champion Cody was atop the rankings, but that won’t last. Wheatland topped Cody 64-56 on Friday, and Rawlins defeated Cody 70-63 Saturday morning after trailing 18-3 in the first period. Like Powell, Cody went 1-2 while Wheatland and Rawlins were both undefeated.

PHS will host a pair of games this weekend. Buffalo comes to Powell Friday for a 7:30 p.m. contest and Sheridan, a 4A school, will take on the Panthers at 2 p.m. Saturday. Then PHS takes a winter break, with no games until the Big Horn Classic in Worland Jan. 9-10.