Panthers fall at regionals

Posted 3/7/17

Lyman 74, Powell 37

Lyman featured five seniors as starters (with a sixth on the bench) while Powell brought two seniors, two juniors and a sophomore.

“We went against a very veteran Lyman team that made very few mistakes and we made too …

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Panthers fall at regionals

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Team builds experience for next year

A young Powell Panther basketball team fell to a pair of veteran Lyman and Cody teams to bring their 2016-17 season to an end at the 3A West Regional tournament in Riverton. The Powell High School boys lost to Lyman, 74-37, on Thursday, and to Cody, 73-47, on Friday.

Lyman 74, Powell 37

Lyman featured five seniors as starters (with a sixth on the bench) while Powell brought two seniors, two juniors and a sophomore.

“We went against a very veteran Lyman team that made very few mistakes and we made too many mistakes,” said PHS head coach Chase Kistler.

Senior TJ Abraham — who finished with 11 points — scored the first basket 26 seconds into the game, but the Panthers went cold for the bulk of the quarter while Lyman went on an 8-0 run.

“The start of that game should have been 10-2 our favor,” said Kistler. “We missed some easy bunnies and we missed four or five free throws right at the start of the game and you hit those shots early in the game and it changes your mentality going into the second quarter, changes your mentality going into halftime and you never know.”

Kistler added that the missed shots were kind of disheartening against Lyman.

“We got kind of backpedaling the rest of the game,” the coach said.

Powell had eight turnovers in the first quarter and fell behind the hot-shooting Lyman team, 18-10.

In the second quarter, Lyman went on a 12-0 scoring run en route to taking a 40-20 advantage at halftime.

“They were a good team that was very complete; they shot the ball well, they rebounded well, they hustled for every loose ball,” Kistler said of Lyman. “Our guys played hard, they just didn’t play smart and we had a lot of turnovers.”

Powell had 18 turnovers by halftime and wound up with 26 for the game, according to KPOW-AM’s statistics.

“Then the second half we dug ourselves a hole and so we had to gamble a little more offensively and had to take shots that weren’t necessarily good shots,” Kistler said. “But we had to take them.”

Lyman went on to win that game and the 3A West Regional Tournament Championship, eventually beating the undefeated Riverton team on their home court 51-50.

Kistler praised his squad’s effort in the loss.

“I thought they competed as hard as they could physically, I thought they gave everything they could. We still just made young team mistakes, in the end what cost us was turnovers,” said Kistler.

Cody 73, Powell 47

The opening loss put Powell in a must-win game against Cody on Friday morning.

“After the Lyman game, I pretty much told them, ‘Next game is a lose and go home; are you going to just accept being beat and go home? Or are you going to fight?’” said Kistler.

Powell came out fighting to score the first basket and lead 7-4 with two minutes remaining in the first.

However, Cody soon hit a game-tying 3-pointer — then downed three more 3-pointers and a free throw in the final 1:50 of the period to suddenly lead 17-7.

“Cody hit some big shots, nail in the coffin kind of shots,” said Kistler of the scoring run.

The score at halftime was 30-15.

“By no way shape or means do I think our guys just gave up and were ready to go home,” said Kistler.

Powell scored 16 points the third quarter — one more point than they had in the entire first half — to trail 50-31 going into the fourth quarter. The Panthers added another 16 points in the final period for the 73-47 loss.

“We just don’t match up with their size very well and their size killed us again,” said Kistler.

That included Cody 6’5” junior, Reece Andre, who “had like four 3’s and that’s a tough match up,” Kistler said. “Because you put a big guy on him, and he takes you out on the perimeter; you put a small guy on him and he takes you down to the blocks. So Cody’s a tough match up for us and has been all year.”

Andre is one of two juniors starters for Cody, the other three are seniors and all five are more than 6 feet tall. (Cody also has three more seniors on the bench who are 6’3”, 5’10’ and 5’7”.)

“When it came down to the press, they caused us to turn the ball over and made free throws down the stretch,” said Kistler. “That’s how you survive at regionals, steal the ball, execute on offense and make free throws.”

Abraham led with 14 points and Paige Gann scored 10, according to KPOW.

Abraham and Gann were the Panthers’ only two seniors.

“(Abraham) is a tremendous athlete,” said Kistler. “He plays basketball like he does football, he leaves nothing out there, gives everything he’s got.”

As for Gann, he “was definitely one of those seniors that was a leader for us,” said Kistler. “He kept kids calm, cool and collected; he picked them up when they were down.”

Kistler said Gann did not have the senior year he wished for, but “he was always a positive leader for those younger kids.”

The coach is optimistic about the future of the program.

“We are still in the rebuilding phase; we are a very young team,” said Kistler. “Next year we should make the turn and become a veteran team, because a lot of our young kids had to step up and play a lot of varsity minutes.”

He added that, “We aren’t going to be young guys playing varsity basketball, we are going to be varsity kids playing varsity basketball.”

Kistler said the numbers for the boys basketball program are better than they have been in years past, adding that one factor will be how much effort the players are willing to put in during the off season.

“We have stuff already lined out for them for summer already in terms of camps and summer leagues,” said Kistler. “It’s going to come down to them in how much work they put in.”

Kistler thanked his assistant coaches, Waleryan Wisniewski, Greg Stenlund and Joey Skalsky. 

“A lot goes into making a team and making a program,” he said.

He also expressed appreciation to Dr. William Jarvis and Dax Mitchell — who serves as the team’s athletic trainer — the community, parents and administration.

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