Heading down to Douglas before the Christmas break the Powell High School girls’ junior varsity team went 1-1 with a win over Burns before falling to Douglas. The Panthers then opened the new year with another win against Rocky Mountain to move to 5-1 on the season.

Powell got off to a strong start and led 15-8 after the first quarter and then 26-13 at the half against Burns.

After a closer third quarter the Panthers broke it open with an 18-0 run in the fourth quarter to finish with a 52-19 win.

“This group continued to play very solid defense and really did a nice job of sharing the ball again in this one,” coach Troy Hildebrand said.

Aspen French led with 17 points, Breiyah Bonander had nine, Autumn Kidd added six, Sam Edgell, Charlie Eastman and Veronica Kovach had five each while Jordyn Nelson had three and Addie Gillett had two.

In the second game, the Panthers led 22-13 at the half, but with a strong second half Douglas pulled off the comeback win 39-36 over the Panthers.

“I thought we did a good job of adjusting to the zone defense that they were playing and getting the ball into the right spots but in this game we just missed too many easy ones when we had a chance to pull away more early on,” Hildebrand said.

Edgell and Kovach led with nine points each, French had seven, Kidd had four, Nelson had three while Gillett and Bonander had two each.

Playing at home on Thursday, the Panthers rolled past Rocky Mountain, building a 21-6 halftime lead before cruising to a 39-12 win.

Kovach led with 10 points, Edgell had nine, Gillett and French had six each, while Eastman, Stella Shoopman, Bonander and Kidd each had two.

The Panthers will have two full contests at home for the Big Horn Basin Classic on Friday and Saturday as well as a half of competition against Burlington, which is only able to play half contests for JV games.