The first time the Powell High School girls’ basketball team squared off against Lander this season, the Lady Panthers squandered an 18-point lead on their home floor to lose 45-41.

But Powell found some redemption Friday on the road. Trailing by as much as 14 points in the second half, the Lady Panthers staged a late fourth-quarter comeback to pull out the 47-43 win.

“We blew a lead here, and they blew a lead there,” said PHS head coach Scott McKenzie. “It was pretty exciting, and I’m real proud of our girls for how they battled back.”

The win moves the Lady Panthers into a tie with Worland for second place in the 3A Northwest Quadrant, with two games remaining in the regular season.

Baskets were at a premium for both teams in the first half, as shots refused to fall early on. The score was knotted at 8-8 after the first quarter.

“... we just kept plugging away at it,” said coach McKenzie. “Rachel [Bonander] kind of got us going, and a few free throws here and there kept us in it. It stayed pretty tight all the way through that first half.”

Scoring opened up a bit in the second quarter, led by Bonander, who finished the half with 10 of Powell’s 17 points.The game stayed close, however, with the two teams battling to a 17-17 stalemate after one half. Coach McKenzie credited the Lady Panthers’ defense with keeping the game tight.

“We did such a good job defensively that first half on their [Lander’s] perimeter girls,” he said. “We told our girls during halftime that we needed to continue to make shots hard for them.”

However, Lander went on a 17-3 run to start the third quarter to take a 34-20 lead.

“I thought we came out with great intensity to start the third, but we lost track of those girls, and they hit some 3-pointers,” coach McKenzie said. “They increased the lead on us, and we weren’t answering on our end.”

Powell was able to halve the lead by the end of the third, behind back-to-back 3-pointers by Brea Terry and Katie McKenzie; the Lady Panthers trailed 35-28 heading into the final frame.

“Those were six big points for us that brought those folks out on us a little bit so we could throw back in to Rachel [Bonander], and she went to work in there,” coach McKenzie said.

Lander pushed the lead to 43-35 with just under three minutes to play in the game, and seemed poised to claim the season sweep over their quadrant rivals. But a free throw by Karlie McKenzie and a pair of free throws by Terry started a 12-0 Powell run in the game’s final two minutes that gave the Lady Panthers the 47-43 win. Powell ran a full-court press in the closing minutes that gave Lander fits on the inbound. During that final run, Stenerson had five points and two steals, Terry hit two more free throws and Bonander scored a bucket on an offensive rebound to complete the improbable comeback. Powell forced seven turnovers in the fourth quarter, while committing none of their own.

“The girls just left it all out there those last couple of minutes,” coach McKenzie said. “We made those turnovers count by scoring on them. It was just a great team effort.”

Bonander once again led the charge for the Lady Panthers off the bench, netting 19 points and grabbing seven boards in the contest. Stenerson followed with 11 points — including seven in the fourth quarter — to go along with two rebounds and two steals.

Terry finished with seven points, including a perfect 4-for-4 from the charity stripe, while Katie McKenzie chipped in five points while dishing off five assists and finishing with two steals. Ashtyn Heny scored three points to go along with three assists, while Karlie McKenzie rounded out the scoring with two.

“The team showed us a lot as coaches — they just have a lot in them to be successful here down the stretch,” coach McKenzie said. “As a coach, I’m going to work hard for them to put them in a spot to be successful, and just enjoy these last few weeks with them.”

Powell finishes out the regular season with a home game against cross-county rival Cody Thursday, followed by a game on the road Friday at Lovell. The Cody game will be Senior Night, and the Lovell game will be important for regional seeding, so it will be a busy week for the Lady Panthers.

“We’re going to continue to work on being more consistent in our scoring,” coach McKenzie said. “Our rebounding has improved, and we’d like to see six or seven 3-pointers made in each game the rest of the way.”