After heading into the winter break with some momentum, the Powell High School basketball teams will compete at home for the first time to start the new year, hosting 2A Rocky Mountain High School on Thursday evening.

The Panther girls (3-3) were inches away from going 3-0 in Douglas before the break, but finished with two straight wins to carry some momentum into the winter pause.

“I think our second weekend was an improvement from the first weekend. I think each game is practice until the real season starts which is conference,” coach Chelsea Kistler said. “I think utilizing every game as an opportunity to get better is what we need to look at as we move forward.”

She said her team focused on nearly every aspect of the game over the winter break while adding in new offensive and defensive schemes, continuing to focus on themselves in the early season.

In the first home game of the season the Panthers welcome in the Lady Grizz (3-5) at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday with Kistler hoping her team shows improvement despite shaking off some rust from the break in action.

“I think they’re (Rocky) gonna come in and compete. They’ve got nothing to lose. They’re the smaller school, they always try to play a more physical game, and we can’t overlook them just because of being a smaller school. We’re knocking the dust off just like everybody else is coming out of break,” Kistler said. “It’s not about Rocky (right now), it’s about us.”

That will start a small string of games for the Panther girls at home, as they will host the Big Horn Basin Classic on Jan. 16-17.

On the boys’ side the Panthers have started strong, going 6-0 over the first two weekends including a number of quality wins over 3A opponents.

Despite the 6-0 start, coach Mike Heny said the Panthers had plenty to work on over break.

“We had a lot to polish during the break on both ends of the floor. The habits that we need to build on a daily basis is an ongoing process in order to adjust to in-game situations as we head into the last of our nonconference schedule,” Heny said.

While the Panthers have earned this undefeated start, Heny said he knows teams will adjust to the strong play of the Panthers and they’ll need to adjust heading into this part of the season.

“We just want to come out and play to our strengths to the best of our ability,” Heny said. “Teams will start to scheme different ways to defend us and score against us now that film is available from the first two weekends. We’ll need to be able to counter those schemes and utilize what fits our strengths in order to continue being effective on both ends of the floor.”

While both coaches are looking forward to playing in front of the home fans for the first time, Heny said he is hopeful the Panthers can use that home court advantage to take down a young, athletic Grizz (5-3) team at 7 p.m. on Thursday.

“Rocky is a fairly young team that will give us a great test coming out of break. They have some good athletic guards as well as some height in the post. Their leading scorer is a 6-foot, 5-inch or so sophomore that can score both inside and from the perimeter. We’ll need to be ready to defend multiple positions and will have to play well in order to give us a chance to win.”

This will be the lone opportunity to see the Panther boys until the end of the month on Jan. 30, as they will be playing around the Big Horn Basin over the next three weeks in a tournament and conference play.