The Lady Panthers have earned the chance to play for the Class 3A state basketball title. The Powell High School girls beat Mountain View 31-15 on Friday in Casper to advance to Saturday's final against Lovell's Lady Bulldogs.

The Panther boys, meanwhile, were eliminated from the tournament with a 75-66 Friday loss to Star Valley.

The Lady Panthers started slow on Friday, scoring just five points in the first half against Mountain View. The Lady Buffaloes, however, started slower, being shut out in the first two quarters. The Powell girls got going on offense in the second half and led 18-4 at the end of the third quarter. Mountain View made its first basket in the fourth quarter, but PHS easily held them off.

Saturday's final will be the fifth time that Powell and Lovell have met this season. That includes having played in the final round of January's Big Horn Basin Classic tournament (which Powell won 55-51) and for the Class 3A West Regional title last week (which Lovell won 45-41). The series is tied 2-2.

Tip-off at the Casper Events Center is expected to be around 5 p.m.; it's scheduled to start whenever the 4A girls' title game (which starts at 3:30 p.m.) wraps up.

In Thursday's opening-round 51-37 win over Worland, Powell's girls jumped out to a 15-0 lead and the Lady Warriors never got any closer than 11 points the rest of the way.

The Panther boys led Star Valley 14-13 at the end of Saturday's first quarter, but the Braves started the second with a devastating 22-0 run. Powell's deficit swelled to 27 points in the fourth quarter before the team mounted a furious comeback. The Panthers cut Star Valley's lead to seven points with 12 seconds remaining before running out of time.

In Thursday's opening round, the PHS boys initially led Buffalo 4-2, but the Bison responded with a 10-0 run and the Panthers were never able to recover, losing 64-51.

Oddly, all four boys teams from the western side of the class (Lander, Powell, Cody and Star Valley) lost to their eastern opponents (Wheatland, Buffalo, Worland and Rawlins, respectively) on the state tournament's first day, while all four girls squads from the west (Lovell, Powell, Star Valley and Mountain View) were victorious against the east (Wheatland, Worland, Torrington and Rawlins, respectively).