The Lady Panthers basketball team locked up the top spot in the Class 3A West’s northern quadrant over the weekend, beating Lander on Friday and Riverton on Saturday.

After struggling with 23 turnovers in each of their two prior games, the Powell High School girls bounced back with just 14 between the two weekend games.

The two wins put the Lady Panthers’ record at 5-0 in the quadrant and 14-5 overall.

Lady Panthers 55, Lady Tigers 45

Head coach Scott McKenzie said Friday’s matchup in Lander was a game of spurts.

“We got up and then they would kind of spurt back,” coach McKenzie said.

After the first quarter, the Lady Panthers led 12-11; at halftime, they led 25-22. The Lady Tigers took the advantage in the third quarter, holding a 33-29 lead going into the final period.

The score was tied at 42 with about 2:21 left to play before the Lady Panthers went on a 15-3 run to win, 55-45. Senior Maddy Hanks scored 10 of her 13 points in the last period, to go along with four assists and four steals for the game.

“She did a great job in that fourth quarter,” coach McKenzie said.

The other six points scored in the fourth quarter came from Rachel Bonander. Bonander had a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds (six on offense and four on defense) and had three blocks.

Only four Lady Panthers scored in the game, but all hit double digits. Katie McKenzie had four 3-pointers for her 12 points as well as five assists.

Aubrie Stenerson had 10 points, five rebounds and two steals.

“Lander played really well and I thought each time they made a run at us, the girls did a good job of answering that and finishing strong down the stretch,” coach McKenzie said.

As a team, the Lady Panthers had only six turnovers.

“So we bounced back this weekend,” coach McKenzie said. “Really proud of the girls for taking care of the ball.”

The Lady Panthers shot 32 percent at the 3-point line, 40 percent inside the arc and 59 percent at the free throw line.

Lady Panthers 43, Lady Wolverines 29

In Riverton on Saturday, “we really jumped out to a great start,” coach McKenzie said.

PHS hit a trio of 3-pointers in the first quarter: two from Hanks and one from Katie McKenzie.

After the first quarter, the score was 17-7 Powell. The Lady Wolverines battled back in the second period to cut the PHS lead to 21-17 at halftime, but the Lady Panthers went on to win, 43-29.

Hanks led the team with 15 points and had five rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Stenerson had 12 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals. At the free throw line, Stenerson made six out of eight attempts.

Bonander had another double-double with 11 points and 10 boards that were split evenly between offense and defense.

Coach McKenzie said the bench did a nice job each night on defense and on rebounding.

There has been a schedule change for a game against Worland that was originally scheduled for Thursday: The game will now take place in Powell tonight (Tuesday) at 5:30 p.m.

On Friday night, PHS’ cross-county rivals, the Cody Fillies, will come to town for tip off at 5:30 p.m. Hanks, the team’s lone senior, will be recognized as well in what will be Powell’s last home game of the season.