Making up games in the southwest corner of the state the Powell Panther girls basketball team split games against Bridger Valley competition. The Panthers defeated Lyman 50-37 on Monday before falling just short in a game against Mountain View in which the Panthers rallied from 18 points down in the third quarter and fell on a last second shot in a 53-51 loss.

POWELL 50, LYMAN 37

Getting back on the court quickly after a contest Friday, the Panthers (13-5 overall, 4-2 3A West) traveled to Lyman to take on the Eagles (11-8 overall, 0-7 3A West) on Monday.

Lyman got behind the Panther press early and often, building a lead and holding an 11-4 advantage before forcing a Powell timeout.

“There’s not much you can do whenever you have a kid that faces our basket, the one that they’re defending, and throws it full court over their head backwards,” coach Chelsea Kistler said. “I would say every quick hit or trick type of play, they ran it in the first few minutes, and it worked, that’s fine.”

Powell worked its way back into the game the rest of the quarter despite a zone from the Eagles, only trailing 13-11 heading into the second after the deficit was as many as nine.

“They ran a triangle two on Emery [Hernandez] and Coy [Erickson]. I don’t see us as a team that you would throw that on for the sheer fact I feel like we have so many different avenues of scoring, but they did and it caught us off guard,” Kistler said. “Obviously we weren’t ready for that, and once we adjusted a little bit, we kind of got our feet on the ground.”

Saige Kidd’s jumper tied the game in the second quarter, and a Hernandez 3-pointer gave Powell its first lead shortly after.

The Panthers carried that momentum and went on a 9-0 run through the midway point of the quarter, before Lyman cut into the advantage as Powell led 24-18 at the half.

Early in the second half the Panthers pushed it to double digits on an Erickson jumper, up 28-18.

Lyman chipped that lead down to six, before five quick points by Ivy Agee made it a double digit game once again up 35-24.

The Eagles once again chipped away at the lead, as Powell led 35-28 heading into the fourth quarter.

Erickson’s 3-pointer made it 38-28 early in the fourth, but once again Lyman cut into the lead.

That was before one final run by the Panthers pulled them away for good, earning a 50-37 win over the Eagles.

“When you’re going to take two of our players away that typically are consistently scoring for us, then obviously their goal is to make everybody else beat them,” Kistler said. “I thought that the other players did step up. I’ve always said from day one that we’re a tough team. We don’t have any one individual per se, like we are truly a team.”

MOUNTAIN VIEW 53, POWELL 51

The Panthers continued their road trip to take on the Buffalos (14-5 overall, 4-3 3A West).

Powell started with an early 4-0 lead before Mountain View took as much as a four point lead of its own in the first quarter.

The Panthers and Buffalos were deadlocked at 11 at the end of the first.

In the second quarter the Buffalos started with two straight 3-pointers, making it a 17-11 game and forcing a Powell timeout.

That started a trend as 3-pointers rained down from the Buffalos in the second quarter, as they quickly built a 24-13 advantage.

“”I’ve never seen them shoot that well, and they’ll never shoot that well again,” Kistler said. “That’s precisely why we came in with the plan that we had. They did a good job of shooting us out of that zone, so we had to get out of it.”

Powell slowly worked its way back into the contest, trailing 27-20 at the break.

Mountain View came out and made it a double digit contest once again early, making it 31-20.

The Panthers cut into the lead early, but the Buffalos went on a strong run to end the third and made their advantage as many as 18 at 43-25, but Powell trailed 43-27 going into the fourth quarter.

“We dug ourselves a big hole against them, which we’ve done before,” Kistler said. “I didn’t think that we particularly played well in the first three quarters.”

The Panthers opened the fourth with a strong run, cutting the lead down to 45-36 on a Hernandez layup.

“We challenged them coming out of that break, and they answered the bell,” Kistler said.

Powell kept pushing late, cutting the lead down to a single possession on an Erickson 3-pointer, and got the ball back on Kidd being fouled.

Erickson missed a 3-pointer but after a steal on the inbounds, Agee made it a one point game.

After a layup by Mountain View the Panthers got another 3-pointer by Erickson and tied the game at 48 with just a minute remaining.

Mountain View got the ball back after a steal, taking it the distance and finishing an and-one to make it a 51-48 game.

Kidd answered with a 3-pointer down on the other end, and the two teams were tied at 51 with under 30 seconds remaining.

After a foul, the Buffalos found a wide open player on an inbounds pass for a layup to make it 53-51.

Powell called a timeout with 4.5 seconds left, but couldn’t find a shot after going the length of the court and fell 53-51.

“We had a lot of things stacked against us going into that game, and that was going to be a tough game,” Kistler said. “We knew that, but we made a great run at them in the fourth quarter. We learned a lot in that last minute, we didn’t execute … It’s just a shame we didn’t finish it out, we didn’t execute the last play correctly and that was something that we have done several times this year in practice.”

FINAL HOME GAMES

The Panthers will return home this weekend for the final home games of the season against the final two southwest opponents.

Powell will start off against Lander (10-8 overall, 4-3 3A West) at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, before welcoming in Pinedale at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday.

“I think that all three of us are different than we were the first time we played,” Kistler said.

POWELL 50, LYMAN 37

Total rebounds then offensive rebounds in ()

Points — Emery Hernandez 14, Coy Erickson 12, Ivy Agee 7, Saige Kidd 6, Catelynn Floy 5, Alexa Richardson 2, Ava Teten 2, Leah Graham 2

Rebounds — Saige Kidd 14 (7), Leah Graham 7 (3), Catelynn Floy 7 (4), Ivy Agee 4 (2), Coy Erickson 3, Alexa Richardson 2 (1), Ava Teten 2 (1), Emery Hernandez 1 (1)

Assists — Alexa Richardson 3, Emery Hernandez 2, Ivy Agee 2, Leah Graham 2, Catelynn Floy 2, Coy Erickson 1

Steals — Emery Hernandez 7, Ivy Agee 2, Alexa Richardson 1, Coy Erickson 1, Catelynn Floy 1

Blocks — Alexa Richardson 1, Emery Hernandez 1, Coy Erickson 1, Saige Kidd 1

MOUNTAIN VIEW 53, POWELL 51

Points — Emery Hernandez 16, Coy Erickson 10, Saige Kidd 9, Ivy Agee 8, Leah Graham 4, Alexa Richardson 3, Catelynn Floy 1

Rebounds — Emery Hernandez 5, Saige Kidd 3 (1), Catelynn Floy 3, Alexa Richardson 2, Coy Erickson 2, Ivy Agee 2 (1), Leah Graham 2 (1)

Assists — Coy Erickson 4, Alexa Richardson 3, Emery Hernandez 3, Saige Kidd 2, Ivy Agee 1, Catelynn Floy 1

Steals — Coy Erickson 4, Ivy Agee 3, Alexa Richardson 1, Emery Hernandez 1, Saige Kidd 1

Blocks — Coy Erickson 2