Leading 63-60, the Powell High School boys’ basketball was just over a minute from sealing a season-opening road win in Riverton. But then things got weird.

A scoring error from earlier in Thursday’s game changed the score to 61-60, cutting a three-point lead to a one-point lead. In the moment, there was no way to disprove that the scorer had given Powell an extra bucket, so the squad was forced to go with it.

But the Panthers didn’t let this get in their heads.

Adrian Geller knocked down a 10-foot field goal to expand the lead, and the Panthers converted three of four free throw attempts to clinch a 66-65 win. Riverton scored those five points on last-second plays, running out of time to catch up.

After reviewing film a couple days later, PHS head coach Mike Heny noted that one of Powell’s 3-pointers was incorrectly ruled a two, and that the initial score of 63-60 was actually correct — meaning the final score should have been 69-65.

“We’re glad the scoring issue didn’t end up hurting us,” Heny said.

Senior Mason Marchant was the offensive leader against the Wolverines, scoring 10 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter.

“He was really good against Riverton and really dominated the game at times,” Heny said. “Mason really helped us turn the game in our favor and gave us the lead we held until the end.”

Geller and Trevor Groves also reached double figures with 14 and 10 points, respectively.

Being able to close out the Riverton game propelled the squad against Buffalo the next day, according to Heny. Friday’s contest wasn’t as close, with Powell riding a second-half surge to a 64-47 win.

This time, senior Landon Lengfelder led the Panthers with 18 points, while Mason Marchant and Jaden Marchant followed behind with 15 and 13 points, respectively. Heny said Lengfelder’s scoring was a “big factor” in pulling away from the Bison.

It’s never easy starting the season with two road contests, but the coach was impressed with how his team started the year in enemy territory.

“I knew back to back long road trips to start the season would be a challenge but the kids responded well,” Heny said.

The coach noted the Panthers’ “ability to space the floor and take advantage of individual matchups on the perimeter” as strengths of the first two contests, as well as attacking off the dribble.

There are a few areas where the coach would like to see improvement, however.

“Going into these next two games, we will need to work hard on cleaning up some of our defensive rotations and rebounding as a team will also be a focus this week in practice,” Heny said.

PHS will attempt to maintain its unscathed record this weekend, with contests against Cody (at 7 p.m. on the road on Thursday) and Rocky Mountain (at home at 7 p.m. Saturday).

“As a team, we just want to work to get better every day,” Heny said. “We are pleased with our start but we have a long way to go to reach our true potential. We will learn from what we did well and zero in on what we have to continue to get better at as the season progresses and we head toward conference play.”