Cancellations throughout the year cut the Powell High School freshman girls’ basketball team’s season shorter than expected, but the Panthers made the most of the games they did get to play through February to finish with an 8-0 record.

“Kind of a bummer deal with our schedule, it seemed like we had cancellations and weather that canceled a good portion of our games,” coach Andrew Borcher said. “With the schedule it was just hard to get any momentum going. We essentially played one game a week when in comparison to years past, we played two games a week and then had an invite where we played three games.”

The year started with a single game in December which the Panthers won 49-35 at Rocky Mountain, before starting the new year with a 51-39 win over Cody.

That followed with a closer 40-34 win at Lovell before running past Worland 42-27.

Powell won the second contest against Cody on the road 47-39, before defeating Buffalo on the road 50-39.

Powell then got a more impressive win against Lovell at home 53-37 to start February before finishing the year at Worland with a 61-40 win.

“With the schedule it provided a new challenge of keeping the team engaged and practices up-tempo and upbeat as we could,” Borcher said. “We made the best of the given situation.”

It was one of the larger groups for Borcher, as 12 athletes came out for the freshman team, which he said brought a challenge of finding playing time for each player with the limited number of games. Still, Borcher said the freshman crew transitioned to the high school level well.

“This group transitioned quite nicely to the high school level,” Borcher said. “Early on this year we played to the strengths of our team which was to overwhelm teams in the full court and beat teams with our quickness. As in any year throughout the season we start looking to the next level and what translates. Being able to guard is one of those skills, so we put more emphasis in the half court towards the end of the season, along with developing and strengthening offensive skill sets in order to be more effective.”

He said the Panthers used their speed to their advantage by wearing out opponents over four quarters, while using their depth to tire the opposing team.

Borcher said this group was strong defensively but needs to improve in certain areas while continuing to grow their offensive game.

“Our off ball defense was not always the best. Offensively each individual needs to continue adding to their game and not be easy to guard,” Borcher said.

The starting five of the Panthers included a number of scorers, led by Kindyle Floy and Veronica Kovach, but also had strong scoring options in Jesi Agee, Autumn Kidd and Sam Edgell.

Off the bench the Panthers turned to Stella Shoopman as their primary sixth man and vocal leader defensively.

He said moving forward the team needs to put more time on the court to improve, while becoming more unpredictable offensively.

“Moving to the next level, I think they need to put the time in outside of the season, building on their individual skill sets along with getting more court time,” Borcher said. “Focusing on areas like being able to guard in the half court. Not being one dimensional offensively and lastly being a good teammate.”

He said one of his favorite moments of the season came late in the year when the Panthers played two quarters against a higher level Burlington squad that did not count against their overall record, and Jordyn Nelson hit a 3-pointer against the Huskies.

“You know every year I enjoy the uniqueness of the group and once again I enjoyed each one of them and felt they all brought something to the table. As a team we got better but I look at individuals as well and see Jordyn Nelson hitting a three against Burlington and seeing her confidence bloom,” Borcher said. “Just those small moments where you see individuals translating things they are working on in practice and seeing them succeed during the game.”