Panther boys beat Lander, climb atop 3A West standings

The No. 4 Powell Panthers moved back into a leadership role in the 3A West conference following a weekend sweep of Pinedale and No. 1 Lander over the weekend. The wins improve Powell to 16-3 overall this season.

“The biggest thing was we knew we had to get them here at home to get back into a tie for first place,” PHS head coach Mike Heny said of the team’s Saturday game against Lander.

As far as top-five matchups go, the Panthers’ Saturday game proved to be fairly anticlimactic as Powell cruised to a 66-43 win. After a back-and-forth start, the Panthers got hot from the perimeter and opened a double-digit lead on Lander, who was short one player from the teams’ first meeting following a season-ending injury to a starter last week.

“We hit a stretch there where we were attacking the basket, but also hitting our outside shots when they sagged back too much,” said Heny. “We did a good job of moving the ball inside and outside and finding the open guy and that helped get us that lead.”

Powell almost appeared to be on autopilot heading into halftime, but stumbled just before the intermission. The Panthers surrendered five quick points to Lander in the final seconds of the first half, enabling the Tigers to carry some momentum into the locker room just before the break.

“That was really our only stumble of the game,” said Heny. “We just didn’t do a very good job in those final seconds of defending and then also communicating on the inbound pass and turning it over to them right under the bucket.”

While the sequence may have conjured memories of the Panthers’ game in Lander, where another late-period 3-point bucket gave the Tigers the momentum needed to rally past Powell, the similarities ended there. Marshall McArthur drained a 3-point bucket for Powell to begin the second half and the Panthers pulled away steadily throughout the final 16 minutes.

Chase Partridge finished with 20 points in the game. McArthur chipped in with 19 and Brady Schaefer added 13 points as he played a big role in helping secure the Panthers’ first-half lead.

“We wanted to be aggressive and keep attacking the whole game,” Heny said. “It all started with the pressure Cooper (Wise) was putting on them as they brought the ball up. Their big kid was able to score a few against us, but we really limited what the rest of the team was able to do. We really locked down on everyone else.”

The same could be said of the previous night’s 75-31 win over Pinedale, which saw Powell’s bench see significant action. Powell needed a couple minutes to get started, but once the Panthers hit stride they quickly outdistanced the Wranglers.

“The biggest thing about Friday’s game is we wanted to make sure our focus was there and that we weren’t looking ahead to Saturday and Lander,” said Heny. “One of the nice things about this group is they never seem to overlook anyone. We did exactly what we wanted to and really got after them defensively.”

The Panthers rode that defensive effort to a number of early steals and transition buckets that opened a double-digit lead before the first quarter came to a close. The Panthers extended upon their lead in the second period and slammed the door with a 24-point third quarter.

“I couldn’t be more pleased with the way the kids came out and showed that they understood the task at hand,” said Heny. “That was a big thing for us, and the way we got after them defensively and pushed the ball to the bucket showed we understood that.”

Partridge again paced Powell with 25 points. McArthur added 14 while Wise and Josh Cragoe finished with eight points apiece.

Powell travels to Worland on Thursday for a non-conference game before wrapping up the regular season on Saturday against Cody at home. That game will determine the Panthers’ placement in the post-season.

“My understanding of the tiebreak is that we’ll be the one seed if we win on Saturday, because we’ve swept Star Valley this year,” Heny said. “Cody is always a tough game, so we’ll have to prepare and play hard.”

Powell 75, Pinedale 31

Partridge 25, McArthur 14, Wise 8, J. Cragoe 8, Lynn 7, Sandal 5, Schaefer 4, H. Cragoe 2, Lynch 2.

Powell 66, Lander 43

Partridge 20, McArthur 19, Schaefer 13, Sandal 6, Lynn 4, Wise 2, J. Cragoe 2.